


Delinquency is an art form

by Aaeris



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sexual Content, Stiles Has Issues, The Hales own a ranch, Trust Issues, deputy!Derek, thief!Stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-30 10:49:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 39,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11462040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaeris/pseuds/Aaeris
Summary: When pickpocket Stiles stole Deputy Derek’s wallet, his dad gave him two choices:A)	The Sheriff can’t bend the rules for his wayward son anymore, so he will have a criminal record to his name.B)	In order to walk away freely, he needs to attend Derek’s sister’s wedding and pretends to be his boyfriend during that time.An AU where Stiles is a delinquent, with a lot of issues, steals people’s wallets with no remorse and Derek, the newest Deputy in town who has to fake his own relationship status in order to be left alone by his too nosy family, doesn’t put up with Stiles’ shit.It’s my own twist on the fake/pretend boyfriend tag.





	Delinquency is an art form

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to publish it a long time ago, but you know... college, intership, job, and my general laziness and obsession with Netflix, I couldn't seem to find the time. 
> 
> And because I'm lazy, and really impatient, I didn't edit the whole thing. It's too damn long! But I hope you'll enjoy it anyways. Sorry about the mistakes, english is not my first language!

 

The first time it happened, Derek had no time to react. He only saw a flash of spiky hair, doe eyes shadowing with eyeliner and a colored tattoo on a bicep, then it’s gone. And he can’t feel his wallet, anymore.

‘’Fuck,’’ he murmurs as he runs to the person he’s sure he’s the cause. ‘’Hey! Wait!’’ he yells in the empty street and when he sees the young man running, his suspicions are confirmed. He tackles the man who shriek in surprise and forcefully corner him on a brick wall.

‘’Hey, man, what’s up?’’ the man asks innocently, wincing in pain. Derek growls, tighten his grip on the man’s shirt. Derek quickly looks at his spiky hair, this determined look in his eyes, the loop pierced on the left side of his bottom lip, his ripped jeans, and Derek knows his type and how he despises these little punks who think they are above the law.

‘’I want my wallet back,’’ he demands in a firm voice.

‘’What makes you think I have it?’’ the younger man retorts. ‘’It can be someone else, you know?’’ he says with a smirk, his attitude too lazy, too laid back for Derek to know that this isn’t the first time he’s done it and he doesn’t give a shit if he gets caught.

‘’We’re alone on the street, you little shit and suddenly, my wallet is gone. Imagine that,’’ Derek responds, dryly. He shakes the man forcefully like a rag doll to get his point across.

‘’Fine, fine! No need to make me into your personal punching bag,’’ he says as he hands Derek his wallet. He grabs it and with a hand free, the young man is ready to run, but Derek is quicker, He grabs his neck in a vice grip.

‘’Not so fast,’’ he hisses.

‘’Oh!’’ the man says in pain. ‘’What’s your problem, man? I gave it back to you!’’

‘’Next time, you should be more careful with who you want to steal from.’’ Derek says in his ear as he makes the young man walks in front of him, not without putting up a fight. ‘’We’re going to the station.’’

‘’What? No! No fucking way! I didn’t do anything wrong,’’

‘’Except thievery? I’m sure this isn’t the first time.’’

‘’What, are you a cop or something?’’ the man tries to joke, but his voice is shaky, nervous.

‘’Yes,’’ Derek simply says.

‘’Impossible,’’ the man scoffs. ‘’I know all the cops in Beacon Hills. I haven’t seen you before,’’

‘’It’s your bad day, then. I’m the new deputy,’’

…And it’s supposed to be his day off, but if it means that this guy is going to have consequences for his actions, he doesn’t mind going to the station. The guy is fidgety, trying to escape his hold more than once, until they reach his black Camaro. It’s early in the morning, so there are no passersby to see him manhandling someone in his car. With no uniform, and no police car, this can be seen on a whole different way and Derek doesn’t need that right now. He handcuffs the younger man’s wrist to the door, noticing another tattoo on his wrist. Derek rolls his eyes; he can’t put in words how much he hates to deal with these little tattooed delinquents who think they know everything, seen everything when they’re not even 25. It makes him sick.

The station is quiet; there’s only the drunken old man, Jim, but he likes to be called Jimmy, in a cell block who yell his frustration to whoever wants to hear it. The building smells like coffee and doughnuts deputy Clark buy every morning from the bakery across the streets. Cops drinking coffee and eating doughnuts… a tad bit cliché, but it’s still delicious.

He throws the young man in a chair and points at him. ‘’Sit,’’ he orders. The few deputies look up to see their co-worker, in his day off, wearing his usual leather jacket when he’s not working, looking severe.

“What’s going on?’’ Deputy Clark asks, looking uncertain at Derek, then at the young man sitting there.

‘’Hey, Valerie,’’ the man greets, beaming at Deputy Clark. ‘’Long time no see. How’s Hayden?’’ Deputy Clark’s eyes soften and she’s to respond, but Derek interrupts their chitchat.

‘’It’s not the time for a conversation’’ Derek says and he looks at Deputy Clark. ‘’He stole my wallet. This little punk, I’m sure it’s not the first time,’’ he scowls, looking down at the bored-looking young man. What he hates the most about these people is when they get caught, they don’t seem to care. They don’t seem to care that their lives are on the line, that he can have a criminal record, if it’s not already done, or put in jail. Their lives can crumble in a fraction of seconds just because he wanted some green bills in a wallet, and they always don’t seem to care. It’s frustrating.

‘’Yeah, well, it’s not the first time, right Stiles?’’ Deputy Parrish says as he joins them in the conversation. What Derek notices is that they all seem to know the kid, but they lack the venom or the cold in their voice. It’s almost as if they personally know him and his delinquency is a quirk, something _cute_. And Stiles? Who named their child _Stiles_?

The Sheriff’s door opens with a bang and Noah, the town Sheriff, joins them, his hands on his hips. He exudes leadership and power. Derek always respected the man. ‘’What’s going on here?’’ he asks, but he keeps looking gravely at the kid -Stiles- sitting on the chair. The kid doesn’t seem faze by the Sherriff’s look, he merely scoffs and rolls his eyes like it’s a waste of time.

‘’Hey, dad,’’ Stiles says simply.

‘’Dad? _Dad_?!’’ Derek replies, more than a little bit surprised.

The kid -Stiles- gives him a smug smile and in the fake lights of the station, the smudge eyeliner under his eyes make the amber of his eyes appear orange and warm. Derek hates that smug face with that smug smile with that stupid loop pierced in his bottom lip.

The Sheriff deeply sighs, like he already had this conversation several times.

‘’That’s my son, Stiles,’’ the Sheriff says. ‘’What did he do?’’ he asks, resigned.

‘’He stole my wallet,’’ Derek says without missing a beat. Clark and Parrish awkwardly part ways, going back to their jobs.

‘’It was harmless!’’ Stiles defends himself. ‘’Nothing happened, I gave it back to him. No harm, no foul.’’ 

‘’I had to chase you for two blocks! You could have stolen my money!’’ Derek retorts.

‘’Well, it didn’t happen. So, we can all forget this little incident,’’ he says, putting his hands in the air in a peace motion. Derek growls and goes to shove Stiles in his chair like he does so many times when he’s face to face with delinquents, especially when it happened more often in his last job in San Francisco and he literally had to scare the poor guys.

‘’Listen, you little…’’

‘’Derek!’’ Sheriff says as he grabs Derek’s arm to get him away from Stiles. ‘’You have the day off, just… cool off, okay? I get it from here,’’ he says as he points to his office. ‘’Stiles, get your butt in my office. _Now_ ,’’ Stiles grumbles but does what his father asked, throwing a slyly look at Derek. The Sheriff gives a tired and apologizing look in Derek’s direction and goes in his office. Not two seconds in and he can already hear the muffle voices of the Sheriff and his son. The blinds are closed, so he can’t see.

Clark leans over the counter of her desk. ‘’Stiles will leave the station with just a little slap on the wrist,’’ she muses and shrugs. Derek, who was still looking at the Sheriff’s office, looks in her direction.

‘’What?’’ he absently asks.

‘’Stiles,’’ she insists with a small smile. ‘’The sheriff always, always bends the rule for his son,’’ she says. ‘’The perk of having a relative in the law enforcement, I presume.’’

‘’You bend the rule for a speeding ticket, not when your son is a thief!’’ Clark hums in agreement.

‘’Well, the Sheriff is in a complicated position, I guess.’’

‘’How long is it like this?’’ he asks her.

‘’Stiles always had been a little bit rebellious. I moved here with my sister when he was… in his junior year. Then he moved away after graduation, didn’t see him for three years, until he recently moved back here four months ago. In those four months, I think he visits more the station for what he has done than just an amical father/son bonding visit’’ She says. ‘’The Sheriff has a complicated relationship with him, trust me,’’ Clark says as she goes back to her work. Derek nods absently.

Derek moved to Beacon Hills a little over two months ago. His whole family live in the next town named Westwood. Beacon Hills’ law enforcement had a free position and he took the opportunity. His family were, of course, thrilled to have him at a closer location. He’s been a cop in San Francisco since he graduates the academy; he thought the big city was his true calling, he definitely had the edginess, the scary eyebrows to be a cop like his friends always said. The city was more dangerous, busier and the atmosphere was exciting for Derek, but he realized that it’s not what he wanted. He missed the small town, the fresh air and the recognisable faces. Once he got the job as the new deputy, the Sheriff soon became a second father to him. He always talks about his son, Scott, and how he’s almost finished with college and how proud he is and how exciting it is that he’s engaged to a wonderful girl. But Derek also knows he has another son, even though the Sheriff only mentioned him once and it was very vague; just that he went away in New York after high school, but he recognised the deep sadness in his grey eyes, so he let it go.

It's him, it’s the other son. Well, fuck. He always imagined a young man, going off to college on the other side of the country, not _that_. He can understand now the Sheriff’s reluctance to talk about his son.

He will be ashamed, too.

The door slams against the door and Stiles leaves the office, smirking in Derek’s direction when he sees him.

‘’Maybe I’ll see you later, handsome,’’ he purrs jokingly as he laughs and leaves the station, leaving Derek dumbstruck.

‘’You let him leave?!’’ Derek asks the Sheriff with a scowl. The older man sighs, and shakes his head.

‘’Don’t get into this, Derek. I had a talk with him, he won’t do it again,’’ Derek scoffs at that. He approaches the Sheriff, not wanting to give a show to the other gossipy deputies, especially Parrish and Clark.

‘’He’ll keep doing it. That’s what they do!’’

‘’Enough, Derek,’’ the Sheriff firmly says, half yelling, half whispering. ‘’He’s… he’s still my son,’’ he murmurs resigned after a few seconds of silence, his throat tight with emotion. Derek shuts his mouth; he had a point and can’t argue with that. The Sheriff must me in a peculiar position: when you’re the head of authority, but your son is the one to commit the crime. He must already be conflicted by how to proceed without hurting the public, _and_ his son.

For once, he’ll shut his month. Just for _once_.

Except, it didn’t happen just once. The second time it happened, a couple of weeks later, he stole the wallet of a young lady, but he wasn’t as sleek as he usually is, and she recognised him as the Sheriff’s son. His father still gave him a severe talk and there was a lot of shouting. Derek was working that day and he winces, just hearing the shouting match behind the closed doors. It was deadly quiet in the station, no deputy dares to speak. When the doors, once again, banged on the wall, Stiles doesn’t have the same smug smile, but he looks furious.

 

‘’Fuck you!’’ he shouts to his dad, walking out of the station. Derek pretends to work, looking at his computer, but he doesn’t miss the heavy sigh the Sheriff lets out and him slowly and carefully closing his door. Derek knows the Sheriff won’t get any work done for the rest of the day.

That night, Derek is carefully balancing his cell phone to his ear, his beer bottle in his hand and his laptop.

‘’I’m telling you, Laura, this kid is a little brat! He’s whoring for attention; that’s what it is. And my heart aches for the Sheriff, you know? Stop laughing! It’s true,’’ he puts his laptop on the coffee table and lay ungracefully on the couch, taking a big sip of the cold beer. ‘’From what I’ve heard, he always gets a pass because he’s Noah’s son, but he’s always making a scene when he’s at the station. It’s awful,’’

‘’God, your job must be boring as fuck if you’re so concern about that kid,’’ Laura comments.

‘’Shut up,’’ he says. ‘’I hate seeing the Sheriff like that, you know?’’

‘’I know you respect him a lot, Der,’’ Laura softly says. ‘’But it’s not your problem… it probably runs deeper than you know.’’

‘’Yeah… you’re probably right,’’ he says with a sigh. He closes his eyes, waiting for his sister to get with another subject. It’s nice talking to her. They see each other more often now that they only live 30 minutes apart from each other.

‘’So…’’ and he knows that tone of voice. It’s never good. ‘’I was thinking, you know, for Cora’s wedding, I can help you bring a date.’’

‘’No fucking way,’’ he says sternly.

‘’Why not?’’ he says hear her impatience and annoyance in her voice. It makes him mad. If you keep going like that, you’re going to be the Grinch.’’ Derek rolls his eyes at that.

‘’I didn’t know it was an obligation to have a partner in life.’’

‘’It’s not!’’ she exclaims, then her voice softens. ‘’It’s just… you haven’t dated anyone since… you-know-who.’’

‘’You can say her name, Laura. It’s not Voldemort.’’

‘’Since Jennifer,’’ she says quietly, as if she was scared Jennifer Blake would jump out of nowhere to murder her. ‘’It’s been two years, you know. And, well, forget that you’re my brother and I’m married for a minute, but you’re a real catch! I’d date you in a heartbeat,’’ Derek groans at that.

‘’Laura, this is gross.’’

‘’Shush,’’ Laura says, sounding bored. ‘’Okay!’’ she exclaims on a new topic with excitement and Derek just knows, because she’s his sister and apparently he just knows too much about her, she jumps on her bed, twirling the telephone wire with her fingers, because it’s Laura and she thinks it’s cool, unique and edgy to use a telephone with wire in 2017. ‘’I know this woman,’’ she commences, and Derek groans. ‘’No! Let me finish; so, her name is Kitty…’’ Derek rolls his eyes. The name Kitty sounds so much like Blondie Fake Boobs, head of the cheerleader’s squad that he ignores his sister talking about this… Kitty.

‘’Laura, Laura- Laura! Listen, I…’’ but Laura keeps talking this or that about this Kitty and she sounds so much like a Mary Sue for Derek’s taste.

His family is sweet and means well, but the problem with the members of his family -ALL of them- is that they don’t understand why someone is, or will chose to be single or stay that way. They are very traditional this way; having a partner and marriage is inevitable. For them, not having someone in his life after 2 years of the disastrous breakup is a bad sigh and they want to help, but their help is unwanted because they don’t know how to butt the fuck out of Derek’s private life.

They have the mentality of the small town; you fall madly in love, you get married, you live happily ever after. There’s nothing wrong with that, and even though they are very comfortable with their small town, Derek’s family never had any problem with his bisexuality and having spend a few years in the big city, being forced into a relationship at 26 doesn’t sit well for him.

Well, he thinks they wouldn’t be able to handle it and take it as rudeness from his part, but at this moment, when Laura is still talking about this Kitty and how great at mixing cocktails at the bar she’s working at, and he just blurts out: ‘’Forget Kitty, I already have a boyfriend?’’ and worse of all, it comes out as a question.

‘’You… do? You do!’’ Laura shrieks like it’s the happiest day of her life.

‘’I- yeah,’’ Derek sighs, rubbing his eyes.

‘’Why didn’t you say anything?’’ Laura asks.

‘’It’s… kinda new? I mean, yeah, it’s new. Just going out with him for… two months, now.’’

‘’Two months?!’’ Laura says, incredulous. ‘’It took me 4 weeks to introduce you all to my husband!’’

‘’I- Laura, I just wanted to take it slow. To see if we’re really serious before meeting the… parents and all.’’

‘’Well,’’ Laura starts. ‘’You have to bring him to the wedding,’’ she casually says. Derek sits up straight, knowing that his white lie is going to bite him in the ass. He panics.

“I- no! Laura, we’re not…’’

‘’Relax, Der. A wedding is actually perfect! Your boyfriend won’t get the million questions from the parents, it won’t feel awkward around a table because everybody is going to be focused on the newlyweds and mom is going to freak out over Cora’s dress the whole time. It’s actually perfect, then after a few minutes introducing him to us, you’ll be lost in the crowd of relatives and whatnot. This is perfect, Derek!’’

‘’I- I don’t know, Laura.’’ Derek mumbles.

‘’Derek, please? I hate to see you alone…’’ she says sadly and Derek’s heart tightened. He closes his eyes, thinking quickly, but he knows what his decision would be.

‘’I- I’ll talk to him and I’ll see, okay?’’ The shriek his sister lets out lets him knows that she won, and he’s screwed.

**-X-**

 

The third time it happened, it was the last straw, both for Derek and the Sheriff. Unlike the other times, Stiles wasn’t caught stealing; instead, he was smoking pot and drinking in a park. Bit what angered Derek so much he wanted to punch Stiles square in the face is that he got stoned in the middle of the say. On a bright, summer day, with kids running around his legs. The parents obviously reported it, and of course, it was this incident that got people talking and giving the Sheriff the death glare. It really brings him in hot waters with the people of Beacon Hills and his position as the Sheriff is seriously questioned.

The deputies, like always, can hear their shouting match in the Sheriff’s office.

‘’I get elected to do this job, Stiles! If you continue like this, I’ll be out of a job and I will lose these people’s respect!’’

‘’Boo hoo!’’ is Stiles’ reply. ‘’Of course you worry more about people you barely know than anything else!’’

‘’Don’t try to stir the blame on me, kid,’’ the Sheriff says in a dangerous tone. ‘’You got wasted in public, son. What is _wrong_ with you?’’ Derek, from his desk, can feel Stiles rolling his eyes. It just infuriates him more.

‘’Yeah, yeah,’’ Stiles says absently. He’s close to the door now that they can hear them without them having to shout. ‘’Whatever. Can I go, now?’’ He opens the door wide open, ready to go, when his father’s voice stops him.

‘’No,’’ he says severely. ‘’I will not tolerate this behavior any longer.’’

Derek sits straight in his chair, watching the scene unfold in front of his eyes. For the first time, the Sheriff is going to punish his son?

‘’You can’t punish me!’’ Stiles says indignantly. ‘’What I did was harmless!’’

‘’You don’t have to kill someone to go against the law.’’ The sheriff tries to bring his son back to his office so they can talk some more without any prying eyes, but so such luck. Stiles flails so much, it’s impossible to touch him without receiving a punch.

‘’I’m your son,’’ he says angrily and Derek feels the urge to roll his eyes.

Noah puts his hands on his hips and looks at his son for a fat, long minute, until he nods in Derek’s direction.

‘’Derek,’’ Derek startles and fakes a smile, clearly trying to pass as someone who was doing his job instead of eavesdropping. ‘’In my office, now. You too,’’ he points a finger at Stiles and goes into his office. Clark gives a sympathetic look in Derek’s direction when he slowly gets up, not knowing why he got call in his boss’ office at the same time as the little brat he once arrested.

Stiles looks like a petulant child and Derek can’t believe he’s in his early twenty. 21-22, maybe? He looks like a sixteen-year-old with daddy issues.

‘’Why is he here?’’ Stiles asks, crossing his arms over his chest, glaring at Derek.

‘’He’s here to help,’’ Noah says as he leans back on his desk, arms crossed. Derek steps further into the office, frowning.

‘’Help?’’ he asks, incredulously and he doesn’t like where this is headed. The Sheriff nods and looks at Derek, biting his lip like he’s thinking about something, and he thought about it for a very long time and he knows Derek won’t like it. But he made up his mind.

‘’I can’t keep doing this,’’ he says, now addressing his son. ‘’ _You_ can’t keep doing this. God, Stiles. You’re 21 and I can’t protect you anymore. I can’t and I won’t bend the rules for you anymore.’’ He states in a firm voice- Derek recognizes it; it’s his Sheriff’s voice. No room for argument. And Stiles seems to get the memo that he can’t get around by being his son, because he’s silent for a fat second, avoiding his father’s look. For once, he doesn’t have any excuses. ‘’That’s why I give you two options.’’

Curiosity picked, Stiles looks at his father with a nonchalance that makes Derek roll his eyes, but he also looks at the Sheriff, still not knowing why he’s here in the first place.

‘’Option A: you’re going to get a criminal record for consuming illegal substance and alcohol in a public place and jail time if the parents press charges and it occurs it.’’

‘’That’s…’’

‘’I’m not done,’’ the Sheriff says, interrupting what his son had to say. ‘’Option B,’’ he says as he gives a quick look in Derek’s direction like he’s debating with something. ‘’Derek needs a date for his sister’s wedding in a few weeks, I want you to go with him.’’

‘ _’What_?’’ Stiles and Derek shout in unison.

‘’You heard me,’’ he says in a calm voice, avoiding Derek’s gaze. Derek can’t believe this; he tells the Sheriff everything going on in his life, because he respects the man, he’s his mentor, he’s like a second father for him. He knows all about his family’s pressure for him to find someone, and he told him about telling Laura about the boyfriend he obviously doesn’t have.

He wanted to ask someone he knows well, that he wouldn’t take it the wrong way, like a friend. He wanted to ask, maybe Parrish, it’ll be great; they are friend, he can easily fake it for a few weeks and that’ll be that. But now, he will have to spend this time with this _brat_? Hell, no.

‘’You’re not serious,’’ Derek says without thinking.

‘’Yeah, you’re not serious,’’ Stiles parrots back with more vigor, and for once, they agree on something. The Sheriff is rubbing his temples like he’s going to have a headache.

‘’Deadly serious. Cora, Derek’s sister, is getting married. And Derek needs a date.’’ He shrugs like it’s not big deal.

‘’Why, he’s so pathetic that he can’t find a date by himself?’’ Stiles asks, laughing bitterly. Derek bits his lip, because he knows he can viciously attack Stiles with his words and he won’t do that in front of his father.

‘’It’s either that, or having a criminal record attached to your name. You chose,’’ Stiles grumbles something under his breath, assessing what his father just said.

‘’So, what, just a date? I go there, spend the day sitting in a uncomfortable chair while two idiots lie about how much they love each other, but really screw other people on the side and we all know it’ll end in a divorce in two years and then dance on stupid love songs and eat little sandwiches without the bread crust.’’ Derek’s blood boil when Stiles talks so easily about his sister.

‘’It’s not like that at all,’’ he hisses, looking at Stile with a death glare.

‘’Derek is right, it’s not like that at all.’’ The Sheriff says. ‘’The wedding isn’t just for a day. Derek is going there two weeks before the actual wedding.’’

‘’Two weeks?!’’ Stiles shouts. ‘’You want me to be surrounded with strangers for two fucking weeks?!’’

‘’Sheriff, with all due respect, I don’t think it’s a good idea,’’ Derek says for the first time, gulping hard.

‘’Stiles, go wait outside, please,’’ the Sheriff almost pled, but Stiles does it anyway, without any complaint. Noah closes the door firmly; Derek counts to ten and stare at the Sheriff’s back, neither of them talk, until the olden man turns around, weary eyes analysing his newest deputy.

‘’So, I’m glad we had this discussion beforehand,’’ Derek says dryly.

‘’I’m sorry, Derek,’’ he sighs as he sits heavily in his chair. ‘’I wanted to discuss it with you, but then this whole thing happened,’’ he points vaguely to the outside of his office. ‘’I really, really wanted to discuss it with you.’’

Derek nods and sits across from the Sheriff. He can’t be mad, the Sheriff does nothing maliciously. It always comes from a good place, from the heart. ‘’I’m not angry- I’m just… why? How did you get this idea?’’

The Sheriff rubs his head, trying to come up with something to say. ‘’I’m losing him, Derek. I have for years; I had no choice but to do an ultimatum. It’s not much; two weeks. That’s all I ask, Derek and he probably come back still the same, but I… want him to see something else, you? You said your family lives in a ranch?’’

Derek nods

‘’It can be good for him.’’

‘’Yeah, well… I do need a fake boyfriend,’’ Derek fakes a smile and the Sheriff smiles back. He sobers up quickly, though. ‘’You care a lot about him,’’

‘’He’s still my son,’’

Derek doesn’t respond to that. He opens the door, sees Stiles and comes face to face with him. He sees his big brown expressive eyes, his stupid pierced lip and the beginning of a tattoo peaking under his shirt, on his collarbone, and he can’t believe this. But he’ll do it. For the Sheriff’s sake.

‘’You’ll be my fake boyfriend,’’ he states firmly and Stiles snorts, rolling his eyes like it’s truly pathetic to have a fake-someone, but Derek ignores it in order to make his point across.

‘’Your father is a great man; he only wants what’s best for you. I hope you know how lucky you are,’’

Stiles pushes him back, narrowing his eyes and with a fuck you, he leaves the station.

It’s going to be two long weeks.

**-X-**

A few weeks later, Derek is sitting impatiently in his car, waiting for Stiles to be done talking to his father. He sees him nodding at what the Sheriff tells him, looking grim like death is coming to get him. In a way, Derek feels the same way. Stiles was straightforward when he didn’t want Derek to get him at his apartment, and Derek didn’t feel like showing his place to a thief either. Yes, maybe that’s prejudice, but you can’t never be too careful, so they ended up meeting at the station, Stiles bringing with him only a battered bag pack.

The only nice thing Stiles said to him when he arrived fashionably late was ‘’nice car’’ in a very boring kind of way.

One he’s inside, neither of them speak. Derek sees in his mirror the Sheriff waving half-heartedly before heading inside the station. It’s when they hit the highway that Derek wishes he would have stayed in bed this morning.

Stiles, without asking, turn the radio on. A classical channel plays a soft, jazzy music and Stiles scoffs. It’s rare Derek listen to music in his car in the first place. Laura always tells him he’s a grandpa, trapped in a 28 years old man’s body. Before he can say to Stiles to turn it off, heavy metal blasts from the speakers and he growls out loud, already feeling a headache forming.

‘’Stiles, turn it off!’’ he almost yells.

‘’No,’’ he says, moving his head to the rhythm of this music.  

Derek do it himself and the car is now in complete, and blissful silence. Then Stiles turns on the radio again. Derek turns it off, more firmly than the first time and looks sideways at Stiles, daring him to challenge him again… and he did. He turns it on again, some kind of System of a Down playing. Derek turns it off again.

‘’Why don’t you fucking listen your i-pod?!’’ he asks impatiently, pointing at the two earbuds hanging from his neck.

‘’It’s more fun from speakers of a car.’’ Stiles merely shrugs. ‘’Besides, it’s fun to see you all work up.’’ He chuckles. ‘’Where are we going, anyways?’’ Stiles says, chewing on a gum like a cow. Derek seriously wants to throw away that gum out of the window; he’s sure he’s doing it on purpose.

‘’Westwood.’’ Derek deadpan, not in the mood to talk.

‘’Seriously?’’ Stiles scoffs. ‘’Your family lives in an even smaller town than Beacon Hills? What are you, some hillbillies making fun of every queer they see, hiding in the mountains?’’ he mockingly says. Derek sighs deeply, gripping the wheels tightly.

‘’If they had a problem with queers, you wouldn’t be my fake boyfriend for my sister’s wedding,’’ he retorts harshly. ‘’And to answer your question, no, we don’t live in a trailer park. My family owns a ranch.’’ He says, somewhat proudly. ‘’We give riding lessons. My sisters work there as well.’’

‘’Family business, how sweet.’’ Stiles says with a fake smile. ‘’Didn’t want to follow in your parents’ footsteps?” Derek knows he’s mocking him, but decides to humour him.

‘’No. I love the horses, I grew up there, but I love my job.’’

‘’I wouldn’t want to do a job and smell horse shit after,’’ Stiles scoffs, looking out the window.

‘’Better that than not having a job at all and steal from hard working people,’’ Derek says casually and Stiles turns his head and stare at him critically.

‘’You think you know me so well, but you don’t know shit,’’

‘’I know enough,’’ Derek replies gruffly. ‘’You’re a boy from a small town. Mom died when you were young, dad is working a lot and is trying to cope with his son’s rebellious ways. Son leaves town, act like a little brat in New York, but fails miserably when he was trying to prove to himself he can be a big boy. Son comes back, ends up being a high school drop out failure.’’ He recites. Stiles gapes at him, and Derek shrugs. ‘’Your dad likes to talk about his little boy,’’ he adds. He doesn’t know why he said it; just to get a rise of Stiles, or to be cruel because it’s going to be the two longest weeks of his life.

But Stiles doesn’t have the reaction he anticipated. In fact, his smile form a slow, lazy smirk.

‘’Look at you. You think you have me all figured it out. Cute,’’ He says, biting his bottom lip and playing with his ring. ‘’Well, I know you moved to San Francisco to become a big bad cop. I don’t know if it was because you didn’t want to end up in horse shit for the rest of your life or because you wanted to prove to everybody you can be bigger than them by living in a big city, though. You’re top of your classes at the academy, as well. You had a loft, the career… and Jennifer. Oh, what a sex bomb she was, right?’’

He smirks at Derek, a lazy smile gracing his lips and in that moment, the older man thinks he looks like a snake.

‘’Is it true you caught her, _in your bed,_ with her legs wrapped around your best friend’s neck?’’ He laughs loudly at that, throwing his head back.

‘’How did you know this?’’ Derek hisses, involuntarily speeding the car. Derek glares at him and if his look could throw daggers, Stiles would already be dead. The younger man continues laughing for a few seconds, truly believing it’s the funniest thing he has ever heard.

‘’I spent my days when I was a teenager hacking into my dad’s job’s computer.’’ He scoffs like it’s nothing. ‘’And for Jennifer, I’m just good at snooping around,’’

‘’You have no right to-‘’

‘’Like you have no right to put your nose into my life,’’ Stiles retorts back.

‘’I have a right to know about the thief who’s going to live with my whole family for two weeks!’’

‘’God, I don’t have herpes,’’ Stiles exclaims, rolling his eyes. ‘’I’m not going to crap all over your furniture or something,’’

‘’I wouldn’t be surprised if you have it,’’ Derek mumbles darkly.

‘’What does it supposed to mean?’’ Stiles asks dangerously low.

‘’You know as well as I do,’’

It’s silent after that, Stiles choosing to ignore him for the rest of the ride, plugging his earphone in his ears. Westwood is a small town, only half an hour from Beacon Hills, but to be fair, this is a town of ranchers, with acres and acres belonging to families for centuries. With the mountains and the deep, green forest surrounding the area, it’s truly a beautiful place and Derek found it peaceful as he grew up here.

After a couple of minutes, they arrive at the Hale ranch. Derek can see the sign at the entrance and in a dusty of sand, he goes into the property and sigh deeply; he’s home, finally. He can go to the end of the world, but there’s no place like here. It brings him a sense of peace, of tranquility.

When he parks in front of a huge house, Stiles speaks up again, mouth open wide. He looks around, the house colored in a bright yellow, the ranch, the horses from afar, the trees nearby that leads behind the property.

‘’It’s fucking huge,’’

‘’Still think we’re hillbillies?’’ Derek asks smugly. He’s quite proud that it makes Stiles shut up for once, that he was wrong in his mockery. There’s nothing that rubs Derek the wrong way more than someone who would make fun of his family.

‘’I think you’re fucking loaded,’’ Stiles retorts and Derek snorts. His parents made sure to get their three children on a good start in their adult life, opening for them a trust fund account to start their life, but it had to be used to built their own lives. Laura practically spent every penny to get into Yale, Cora did almost the same thing with UCLA, but Derek still has money left from the Academy, clearly not as expensive as an Ivy league university.

But he still works for what he has in life.

When he sees his mother on the porch, smiling, a hand above her eyes to protect from the sun, Derek wants to be face to face with Stiles, so that his words will stick to him, and he has less than one minute to do so.

‘’Okay, let’s make it clear,’’ he says in a hard voice, looking serious. Stiles rolls his eyes like it’s nothing. ‘’You’re not on a vacation, here. You’re supposed to be my boyfriend, so act like it.’’

“What, you want me to kiss you languorously?’’ Stiles jokes.

‘’No, but we can’t look like we dislike each other. You have to play your part, here.’’

‘’Don’t worry, I’ll charm the pants off of your whole family. When we’re going to break up, they’ll be all heartbroken, trust me.’’

‘’Don’t be too… out there,’’ Derek suggests.

‘’Meeting the parents isn’t that big of a deal, fucking relax, will ya?’’ He goes to unlock the door, but Derek grabs his forearm. ‘’Just behave. Act like a 21 years old who got his life together, for a change.’’ Stiles scoffs and rolls his eyes, ready to leave once again, but apparently, Derek is not done. He takes the earbuds from around Stiles’ neck and throw them in the back seat.

‘’For god’s sake, I’m not dating a sixteen-year-old,’’ he complains. He also takes the grey beanie Stiles has to hide his messy brown hair and throw it in the backseat as well.

‘’Hey!’’ Stiles protests.

“Quit your whining,’’ Derek says as he points a finger at him. ‘’Act like a fucking grown adult.’’

‘’What does it have to do with my clothes?’’ he asks petulantly.

‘’Clothing is a part of who you are as a person,’’ Derek clarifies. ‘’I’m not dating a sixteen-year-old hobo,’’ he cringes as he looks more closely to what he’s wearing. Dirty converse shoes, ripped jeans, a red T-shirt with some kind of comic book character with a black hoody, with a grey beanie he can thankfully take off. For first impression, he could have done better. ‘’I should have let you borrow my clothes,’’ he absently comments.

‘’Are you done judging me, you’re hurting my feelings,’’ he feigns a hurt expression. ‘’Besides, it goes well, according to my plan,’’

‘’A plan, what plan?’’ Derek asks, internally panicking.

‘’You’re really bad at this.’’ Stiles sighs like he can’t believe what he’s hearing.  ‘’You invite me for two weeks to see your family and they’re probably going to ask me stupid fucking questions. I need a plan for how did we meet, what I do in life and such. In my perfect plan, I’m a college student. The clothes are now working,’’ he shrugs. ‘’If I were to be a lawyer, a suit and tie should probably fit me better,’’ he winks as he exits the door. A plan? Why did Derek never think of it? Of course they need to have a plan so that their imaginary relationship can match up!

He internally groans. He would have to follow Stiles’ lead on this.

He exits the car at the same time as Talia, his mother, makes her way towards them. Derek is waiting impatiently for the bomb, for something terribly wrong to happen. She had told him countless times that he’s a terrible liar; she would just know. Mothers always know.

‘’Mom, hi,’’ he greets her with a force smile.

‘’Derek, honey,’’ she says, laughing as she hugs her son tightly, rubbing her back for good measure. Talia Hale is a tall woman; she’s as tall as Derek. Her long locks brush her back, her warm eyes, the exact same shade as Derek, look at Stiles over Derek’s shoulder with something akin to acceptance, and love. It makes Stiles feeling uneasy, but he puts on a bright and confident smile. ‘’As much as I enjoy seeing you again, I’m also much more delighted to meet your boyfriend,’’ Talia says as she parts from her son. Derek doesn’t seem to mind his mother’s bluntness; he merely rolls his eyes fondly as he smiles gently at his mother. It’s the first time Stiles sees him this relax, and a bright smile suits him better than a scowl. Derek looks at Stiles with _this_ look, to do something, _anything_.

‘’Hi, Ms. Hale,’’ Stiles greets her and instead of shaking her hand, he goes and hugs her warmly. Her laugh can be heard throughout the property. ‘’It’s so nice to meet you!’’ Stiles says with a charming smile as he parts, beaming down at her like she’s his oldest friend. ‘’Derek told me so much about you, but I just have to say he didn’t tell me how much of a beauty you are! He definitely gets his good looks from you.’’ And he winks at her, _winks_! Derek is going to smack him.

Talia looks at Derek like he’s trying to figure him out, and Derek is sure she’s going to think Stiles is too much, but instead, she smiles widely at the younger man, lightly tapping his cheek. ‘’Obviously you haven’t seen my husband, yet. Derek is the copycat of him, I swear,’’ she shakes her head, and leads the way to the house. ‘’Come on, you two,’’ she says a few steps ahead. Stiles walks behind her, but Derek grabs him by the waist to stop him,

‘’What are you doing?’’ he hisses in his head.

‘’Your mom already loves me,’’ he shrugs. ‘’You told me to do just that,’’

‘’I didn’t tell you to go and flirt with my mom!’’

‘’She didn’t seem to mind,’’ he winks at him and follows Talia in the big house.

The interior is spacious, with a large stairwell that goes to two different directions on the second floor, and even though the house is big, it’s well-lived in with a mountain of shoes next to the door, the distant sound of a TV show playing in the living room and the bark of a big, scary dog. That jumped on Stiles, its big paws flat on Stiles as he falls on his bump, licking his face.

‘’Rufus!’’ Derek says as he tries to get the dog off of Stiles. It’s a bernese mountain dog, barking happily in Stiles’ face. ‘’Rufus, get off!’’ Derek orders as he tries to get the dog off of Stiles who sits on the floor, scratching behind the dog’s ears.

‘’S’fine,’’ he assures them as the dog continue licking his face. He laughs as it tickles him. ‘’I always wanted a dog when I was a kid. Never had a chance to have one- but you, you’re beautiful. Yes, you are! Yes, you are!’’ he says in a baby voice, letting the dog licking him.

‘’We try to teach him good manners, Stiles,’’ Derek says.

‘’Don’t be such a grump,’’ Stiles replies. ‘’Let him lick my face if he wants to.’’

‘’It’s gross,’’ Derek retorts with a grimace. Talia laughs quietly besides her son. ‘’It’s disgusting; you don’t know where he put that tongue,’’ For good measure, Rufus licks his new friend scare on the mouth. Stiles stands up after that, petting the dog on the head and he has that look, Derek should know what he was up to.

‘’Oh, really?’’ Stiles says as he goes and kisses Derek; when his lips connect with Derek, the latter grimace and pushes him away. Stiles laughs out loud as Talia puts her hand in front of her face.

‘’I can’t believe you just did that!’’ he hisses as he wipes his mouth.

‘’Don’t be like that; you’re going to hurt Rufus’ feelings. I’m sure he’s cleaner than you,’’ he replies with a bright smile. Talia must think it’s all just teasing, but they both know it runs deeper than that with them. Talia leaves them, telling them that Cora and Laura are going to be there around dinner tonight and that Leo, her husband, is with the horses.

Derek takes his suitcase and leads the way up the stairs. ‘’Why did you do that?’’ he asks between grit teeth. ‘’Why would you kiss me?’’

‘’Isn’t what couples do?’’ Stiles smirks.

‘’You did it on purpose; because you had my dog’s saliva all over your face! And in front of my mother to make it worse,’’

‘’Well, we had to make her believe us!’’ he says. When they reach the top of the stairs, Derek leads them to one of the guest rooms. ‘’Oh, I know! Tonight, we can tap the walls and jump on the bed so that your family will think that we totally bang,’’ he says casually. ‘’It’s my pleasure to help,’’

‘’You are not doing this,’’ Derek warns as they step inside the bedroom.

‘’We are not sleeping in your childhood bedroom? How sad,’’ Stiles pouts as he enters the room more, throwing his backpack on the floor and throwing himself on the bed, starfish style. ‘’I would love to see your spider-man sheets,’’

‘’ I never had any spider-man, or any kind of characters on my sheets, and B; the bed in my old bedroom is far too small.’’ Derek turns his back to him to put his clothes into the dresser more aggressively than usual. Stiles hums as he looks at the ceiling. He arches his ass up to get a cigarette and a lighter from his pocket. He puts the cigarette to his lip, but before he can light it, Derek snatches the light from his hand.

‘’What the fuck are you doing?!’’ Derek half whisper, half yell.

‘’Uh, smoking?’’ Stiles answers with an eye roll like it’s obvious.

‘’Not in the house, and not on the property either!’’

‘’Why the fuck do you care?’’ Stiles asks with an angry scowl.

‘’I don’t,’’ he retorts. ‘’But I’m not dating a chimney!’’ Stiles stands up, throwing his hands in the air.

‘’Damn, dude! It’s just a smoke. You have so many fucking ridiculous rules on how your fucking fake boyfriend should be like and what he shouldn’t be like! No wonder you couldn’t find someone; nobody fit that perfect description that you want!’’

‘’Keep your fucking voice down,’’ Derek hisses.

‘’Why? Couples argue all the time. You mom should be thrilled to hear us arguing,’’

‘’You’re a fucking little brat,’’ Derek says as he walks towards Stiles, taking his cigarettes in his hand. He’s so much in Stiles’ personal space that the younger man has no choice but to touch the wall behind him. ‘’This,’’ he shows the cigarettes, ‘’It has no place in my family’s property. Especially not in my parents’ house.’’

‘’You got your panties in a twist. You should take a drag, it’ll relax you,’’ Stiles retorts, face going red in anger and annoyance by this ridiculous situation. If he knew Derek would have been such a pain in the ass, a criminal record seems more appealing, to be honest. ‘’You’re so fucking annoying,’’ Stiles huffs as he pushes Derek away, crawling back in the bed. ‘’I shouldn’t have agreed to do this bullshit with you,’’ he admits, scowling at the ceiling with his arms crossed over his chest.

‘’Then you’d have a criminal record. Is that really what you want?’’ Derek asks.

‘’My dad is all talk but nothing else. Do you seriously think he’d get his son in troubles like that? The worse he can do is throw me in the cell block at the station for a night to scare me a little or something and that’s it.’’

‘’You seem awfully confident about that,’’ Derek says, crossing his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall next to the window.  Stiles huffs at that, rolling his eyes.

‘’You don’t fucking know me, or my dad. You don’t want what he’d do.’’

‘’I’m pretty sure I know him a lot better than you,’’ Derek replies calmly. Stiles sits on the bed, legs crossed Indian-style and stares him down.

‘’You know him since what, a couple of months?’’ Stiles asks, arching an eyebrow at him.

‘’And you left before you even graduated,’’ Derek says. ‘’And he talks to me. I’m pretty sure I know things that his son who never spend time with him don’t even know.’’ He doesn’t know why, maybe it’s the stress for having this total stranger in his family home, but he enjoys taunting Stiles. He enjoys watching the indifferent kid gets all worked up.

‘’Shut your fucking trap,’’ Stiles says loudly.

‘’Sorry, I can’t do that; you need to hear these things, otherwise, you’d end up with a criminal record.’’

‘’I told you that…’’

‘’That daddy wouldn’t go through with it?’’ he asks with a arching eyebrow. Stiles clenches his teeth, his nostrils flaring.

‘’I’m his son,’’ he says again like he’s trying to convince himself that if he screws up again, his own father would never put handcuffs around his wrists.

‘’I wouldn’t worry about that,’’ Derek retorts. ‘’I mean; he’s got two sons. You and the other one… Scott, right? There’s always a black sheep in the family. Mine’s uncle Peter, I’m sure you can go and screw your life and Scott will still be there, right?’’

Stiles slowly stands up and Derek braces himself for a punch, but instead, Stiles leaves the bedroom silently. He notices the clench of his jaw, the shine in his eyes as he blinks rapidly and his hands balled into fists. He doesn’t see him until lunch.

He goes downstairs with an heavy heart and something akin to guilt crawling inside of him.

Lost in his thoughts, he’s helping his mom preparing dinner.

‘’A penny for your thoughts?’’ Talia asks his son, elbowing him gently. He shakes his head and hums in question as he cuts tomatoes to put in the salad.

‘’You are quiet. Everything okay?’’

‘’I-yeah, yeah. Everything’s fine,’’ he says and he looks at his mother. She looks at him knowingly and he gulps. He used to tell her everything – to his first crush on Paige, his first date with her, hell, even his first time with her! And it was that way with his various relationships, even how he and Jennifer broke up. He can tell her half the truth, sugar coating it to the maximum, though. ‘’It’s just- you know, I’m just nervous about Stiles being there. Meeting the… whole family, you know? It’s stressful,’’ Talia hums in agreement and stop working on the hummus she was making.

‘’You don’t have to be nervous about it. Stiles seems like a wonderful young man. I’m glad you found someone… after, well, after everything.’’ She smiles at him and continues what she was making. ‘’Even though he seems quite younger than you,’’ there’s no judgment, just pure curiosity. Well, his relationships are always with people the same age as him, or a year or two older or younger. If Stiles had gone to college, he’d be in his senior year of college, by now.

‘’I-yeah. He’s in… college?’’

‘’Is that a question?’’ Talia asks, arching an eyebrow.

‘’Uh, no. He’s definitely in college, yeah. He’s really smart.’’

‘’And what does he study?’’ Derek’s brows furrows. He doesn’t know Stiles’ plan. What’s his plan?

‘’I… I think it’d be nice if he tells you himself, at dinner, when everybody is there.’’ He laughs nervously. ‘’You know how college is. So many majors and minors and I think he even changed his program twice, so I don’t want to mess up his academics. We met because of his dad, though. He’s my boss,’’ he quickly changes the subject, hoping Talia will drop it.

‘’Oh! His dad is the Sheriff?’’

As they are making dinner, they still make light conversation and the main subject and, obviously, Stiles. Derek tries to talk about something else, like Cora’s ultimate wedding, but of course, Talia urges him with subtle hints that she wants to talk about his new boyfriend. Derek is making sure they stay on the surface because: A, he doesn’t know the guy that much, and B, well, he just doesn’t know him and this whole thing is as fake as Kylie Jenner’s lips. He wants to puke and just go home and forget about Stiles, about everything.

But he fucking can’t.

When the chicken is ready, that’s when he hears his father’s heavy boots in the entry hall. He hears his father’s warm, loud laugh, mixed with a lighter laugh Derek isn’t used to hear.

Leo Hale is a tall, muscular man, due to his years spent outdoors tending to the horses and the multiples tasks he needs to do on the ranch. Because of his many hours under the sun, he has a nice tan, with a square jaw dusted with dark stubbles. When he smiles at Derek and Talia as he enters the kitchen, showing his pearly white teeth, he’s like a carbon copy of Derek. Or rather Derek is a carbon copy of him and he’s what Derek will look like in thirty years.

‘’Hey, champ!’’ Leo greets his son, hugging him tightly. He has a specific name of all of his children; Derek, it’s champ, Laura it’s princess and Cora is baby girl. And his baby girl is getting married in less than two weeks and he’d lie if he tells you he doesn’t get misty eyed just thinking about it.

‘’Hi, dad,’’ Derek says, eyes landing on Stiles over his dad’s shoulder. ‘’I see you already met,’’ he states as he parts from his dad.

‘’What? Oh! Yeah!’’ Leo says, his big voice echoing in the kitchen. ‘’I saw this guy wandering about outside, mumbling to himself,’’ he pats Stiles’ on the back. ‘’We started talking, he’s great, Derek!’’

‘’Uh, great?’’ Derek asks dumbly.

‘’I’m charming, darling,’’ Stiles retorts, making his way to Derek as he takes his hand and squeezes so tight Derek winces in surprise and gives Stiles a thunderous glare. ‘’Didn’t you that?’’

‘’I know you can be a pain in the ass, but charming?’’ Derek says, forcing a smile that, hopefully, looks teasing.

‘’Stiles, we definitely have to play a game this week!’’ Leo says.

‘’Don’t tell me you annoyed this poor boy with your obsession with baseball,’’ Talia complains as she tosses a salad.

‘’I initiated it,’’ Stiles retorts. ‘’Go Mets, am I right?’’ he beams, lightly bouncing on his feet. Talia chuckles to herself as she finishes dinner. 

Cora and Laura arrive just in time when Stiles and Leo are in a deep conversation about a thing or another. And just like his mother and father, Derek watches the whole thing unfold; Cora, her fiancé, Laura and her husband introduce themselves to Stiles and just like his parents, they are charmed by this young man that ‘’stole’’ the family’s loner’s heart. He still can’t have wrapped his mind about it. With his previous relationships, it took a few meetings for his family to appreciate, even the slightest, to his previous partners. It took Jennifer two months for the family to finally welcome her and it took, what, an evening for Stiles to win his entire family over?

The evening is filled with laughter as Stiles slowly, but surely charms his way through Derek’s family. The older man sits quietly at the table, absently digging at his cake as he listens to Stiles talking about the last Assassin’s Creed’s video game with Cora, because apparently their found a common interest in 3D animation, forcing a smile and try to look at Stiles fondly. It’s hard, though, when Stiles takes his hand, or tells a joke about something that Derek apparently did and it was embarrassing, but it never happened, because they never did anything together! But apparently, his family loves these stories, and Stiles continue feeding them with cute little -embarrassing- stories about Derek that literally never happened.

‘’So, Stiles, you said you are in college?’’ Talia says, deciding she’s had enough of the light chatter. Stiles smiles brightly at her and Derek holds his breath. ‘’What are you studying?’’

‘’Psychology,’’ he retorts easily, like he already thought about it. He probably did, that’s what _plans_ are for. ‘’I want to be a forensic psychologist,’’ he takes a big bite of the chocolate cake he spent 5 minutes gushing about, and Talia was blushing. _Blushing;_ Derek’s mother never blushes for anyone or anything.

‘’Wow! That’s so cool!’’ Cora exclaims, obviously more interested in him than she usually would with strangers, because she just found her new best friend who happens to love video games as much as she does.

‘’That’s quite a remarkable job,’’ Leo says jovially. ‘’People needs them,’’ he says as he finishes his cake, taking a big gulp of his drink. Derek wants to roll his eyes at his dad. He doesn’t know anything about it; Leo Hale is an outdoor guy. He’s very smart, and he made a fortune with his horse riding lessons and his ranch is going great, but he never went to college. He prefers outdoorsy activities, and getting dirty, and Derek is sure he never heard the word _Forensic_ before.

‘’Forensic psychology is the intersection between [psychology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology) and the [justice system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_legal_systems). It involves understanding fundamental legal principles, particularly with regard to [expert witness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_witness) testimony and the specific content area, as well as relevant [jurisdictional](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_jurisdiction) considerations in order to be able to interact appropriately with [judges](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge), [attorneys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawyer), and other [legal professionals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_profession).’’ Isaac says to no one in particular. This time, Derek rolls his eyes. Isaac Lahey just knows everything on anyone and anything. It’s unnerving, to be honest. He was the kind of guys to look down at people because he has an higher education, until he met Cora and stop pretending he’s a god or else, she won’t see a future with him. That shuts him up quickly, but from time to time, he slips, and he says the whole Wikipedia page of a subject when he feels like it.

For once, Stiles observes him, mouth opens. ‘’I- had a complicated relationship with my dad,’’ Isaac murmurs. A look of understanding crosses Stiles’ face, but Talia is quick to change the subject, clearly remembering not to mention Isaac’s dad.

‘’Well, that’s great, Stiles! You wanted to do something linked to your father’s job?’’ she asks.

‘’My mom was a forensic psychologist.’’ Stiles explains, and for the first time, Derek sees genuine emotions crossing his face. It was pained, but it was quickly replaced by a fond look. ‘’She frequently visited the station for her job, and they met.’’

Laura sips at her tea, engrossed in what he was saying. ‘’Do you have a job, too?’’ she asks. Stiles laughs quietly and tucks his head shyly and if it was a real date, if he was a normal person, a normal and real college student, then yes, Derek would have found him cute and endearing and whatever else his family thinks he is, but he knows the real him and he’s anything but cute, or endearing.

‘’Actually, yeah, I do. Well, it’s a small job at a coffeehouse, but I gotta pay my rent, right?’’ he nudges Derek’s shoulder playfully like they’re keeping a secret nobody but them knows and when his family laughs good-naturally, he wants to strangle him.

‘’You boss doesn’t mind that you’re here?’’ Sebastian, Laura’s husband, asks with a friendly smile. He’s quite handsome; he has a young teacher look to him. Someone eager to start working in their career, thinks they’re going to change their students’ lives and the schoolgirls all have crush on him.

‘’I gave him two weeks of break. The old man will barely notice,’’ he jokes, but for some reason, Derek knows it to be the truth.

When dinner is done, Leo and Talia go on the porch to relax, watching the stars outside. They invited Stiles to join them, but he kindly refuses. They spent more than an hour around the table, talking, laughing, and he declines with the excuse of being tired. Cora is talking about the wedding with Isaac, Laura and her husband, Sebastian, who stayed silent for most of the meal.

 

Stiles goes up the stairs and he and Derek swings their hands between them, but as soon as they are on the second floor, Derek pushes Stiles abruptly in their guest room.

‘’What the fuck, dude?’’ Stiles shrieks, indignant.

‘’A forensic psychologist, really?’’ Derek asks coolly.

‘’Well, yeah. What’s the problem?’’

‘’You know shit about this job! I know my family and they will talk to you about it, and about your future job that you will not have!’’

‘’My mom was one, remember?’’ Stiles says, scoffing.

‘’Yeah, your mom, not you,’’ Derek hisses in his face.

‘’Relax, big guy. You take this thing too seriously. Loosen up,’’ he says as he goes in the bathroom in their room, taking his shirt off as he looks for his toothbrush.

‘’Besides, my dad’s a sheriff. I know a thing or two about the justice system, It’s in my blood,’’ he shrugs as he goes to search for the toothpaste. Derek lets out a bitterly laugh.

‘’In your blood? Yeah, that’s why you don’t give a fuck about the justice system when you screw it on a daily basis,’’ he says, but at this point, Stiles is too busy brushing his teeth to reply. Now shirtless, Derek notices another tattoo; something he can’t really see from his angle, but it was on his left side, on his rib, but low enough and big enough to touch the lower side of his belly as well. It’s three tattoos in total that he can see; his rib, his wrist and his bicep. ‘’And that coffeehouse story, a lie, too?’’ Derek asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

‘’Nope,’’ Stiles replies as he spits in the sink. ‘’What, you think stealing wallets is my only income? Rent and food ain’t going to buy itself,’’ he replies roughly as he exits the bedroom, digging into his backpack for a new t-shirt. ‘’But don’t worry, if they ask any questions about my job, I’d tell them all about how to open a cash register,’’

Derek growls at the retort, Stiles obviously making fun of him. Unlike Stiles, he’s not an exhibitionist, so he’s going inside the bedroom, closes the door forcefully, and change.

When he exits the bedroom in only a pair of jogging pants, he sees Stiles already in the bed, Patrick Star style on the bed.

‘’Move,’’ Derek orders. Stiles lazily lifts his head, looking at him with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

‘’Oh, I’m sorry? I don’t share.’’

 

‘’What?’’ Derek hisses. ‘’It’s is _our_ bed for the next two weeks. I wouldn’t touch you if it was the last thing I do on Earth, believe me,’’ he vows. ‘’Now, move!’’

‘’Uh uh,’’ Stiles shakes his head. Derek sighs deeply.

‘’Fine,’’ he says coolly. ‘’Then, go on the floor. This is my parents’ house, therefore, I have the bed.’’

‘’And I’m the guest.’’ Stiles replies smugly.

‘’You’re not a real guest,’’ he growls. ‘’You’re my fake boyfriend, nothing more.’’

‘’You don’t want me to smoke on the property,’’ Stiles shrugs. ‘’Tell you what; you let me smoke, I’ll let you have the bed,’’

‘’Fuck, no,’’

‘’Then go sleep on the floor,’’ Stiles replies, like a challenge. Derek looks at Stiles severely for a couple of seconds, before giving up. He grumbles obscenities and what is obviously insults about Stiles as he makes his makeshift bed with covers and a sleeping bag he found in the closet.

They don’t utter words for ‘’goodnight’’ or ‘’sleep well’’. They sleep, even though it’s still pretty early, but Derek just wants to block out anything and if he sleeps right now, maybe the quicker the few next weeks will pass.

**-X-**

The nest morning, when Derek wakes up, he groans contently and arches his back, until he remembers he’s on the floor, and his back hurts and he should be in his bed, _instead._

The house is empty, for once. Since he moved out when he went to college, waking up to silence was heavenly, because growing up in a big family with two sisters, an uncle that came and go, horses, dogs running around and the fact that their actual job is at their ranch, he never had the luxury to wake up late to an empty house.

But now, after years of living on his own, he longs for these tumultuous mornings. Except now, he can’t hear a sound. He reaches for his phone, and it reads 9:00. He can’t even hear his mom making breakfast downstairs.

He takes a quick shower and goes downstairs. It’s eerily quiet, until he hears Rufus barking faintly outside. As he goes inside the kitchen, he sees his sisters and Stiles, of course, it’s him, next to the barn. He internally groans. He can’t wait for these two weeks to be over. He gulps a cup of lukewarm coffee and goes join them.

 

When Rufus sees him, he runs to him and turns around Derek excitingly.

‘’It’s about time you join us,’’ Cora says.

‘’It’s just 9 am,’’ Derek grumbles. ‘’Where’s your beloved ones?’’ he asks sarcastically.

‘’Still asleep, what do you think?’’ Cora replies. ‘’And before you ask, the parents are in town. Mom will probably come back with bakeries from Georgia’s.’’ Derek hums and his mouth began to salivate just at the thought of Georgia’s bakeries.

‘’Really?’’ Stiles asks. ‘’do you think she’ll buy honey crullers? My body is ready for a honey cruller,’’

Laura looks at him weirdly, but she smiles as he retorts. ‘’Those are Derek’s favorite doughnuts, too,’’

‘’I knew that,’’ Stiles lies easily. He punches Derek’s lightly on the arm. ‘’Another thing we have in common, right, honey bee?’’ Derek forces a smile, but doesn’t answer. Instead, he turns to his sisters.

‘’What are you doing here?’’ he asks, instead of thinking about goodies he shouldn’t have, because empty calories.

‘’Show Stiles around the property.’’ Laura shrugs with a smile that only Derek and Cora knows what it means. An innocent, private smirk. ‘’He told us he never rides a horse,’’

Laura opens the large door of the barn and steps inside, following by her little sister.

‘’With good reason,’’ Stiles retorts as he steps inside the dark barn, scrunching his nose because if the smell, grimacing when his feet come in contact with an unknown texture. ‘’I’m a city boy, I don’t spend my days in horse shit,’’

‘’You’re from Beacon Hills,’’ Cora says with an arc eyebrow.

‘’And I moved to New York,’’ Stiles quickly says. ‘’Best years of my life,’’

Derek rolls his eyes at his antics. ‘’You better change your attitude. Horses can feel it when you don’t like them,’’

‘’Like, they can read mind, or something?’’

Laura is gently touching the mane of a gigantic black horse and Stiles unconsciously takes a step back. Derek smiles gently at the horse.

‘’Hey boy, long time no see,’’ he murmurs in the horse’ ear and at the sound of his voice, he neighs.

‘’A good friend of yours?’’ Stiles jokes.

‘’It’s Derek’s horse,’’ Laura explains.

‘’His name’s Shadow,’’ Derek says. ‘’I haven’t the time to go on a ride with him in so long,’’ he admits.

Laura and Cora share a look. ‘’Why don’t you go on a ride this morning, then? Take Stiles with you!’’

 

‘’What?’’ Stiles asks, eyes wide. ‘’Absolutely not. I will not go on that monstrosity!’’ he exclaims, pointing a finger in Shadow’s direction, who obviously already don’t like him.

‘’You wouldn’t have to,’’ Laura says. ‘’We have a smaller horse, just for you.’’

‘’I will break my neck,’’

‘’You will not,’’ Laura scoffs as she goes further away in a barn.

‘’Really, guys, if Stiles doesn’t want…’’

‘’Derek, take your boyfriend on a ride,’’ Cora orders. ‘’Plus, you will have time to bang in a seclude area. The walls of the house are so paper thin you need t find somewhere else to do the nasty,’’

‘’Cora!’’ Derek exclaims in a hard voice, blushing furiously. Cora shrugs like she doesn’t know what the big deal is.

‘’Who said we haven’t do it, already? Did you know that your brother likes it when I…’’

‘’Stiles!’’ Derek interrupts him, looking at him as if to dare him to continue. Cora chuckles quietly.

‘’Don’t worry, Stiles. We have all the time for you to tell be the dirt on my brother,’’ Laura came back with a smaller horse. He’s a buckskin horse, which means that the smaller horse has a golden yellow coat with a black mane, tail and forelock with black legs.

‘’He’s a bit stubborn and awkward at times, but he’s very gentle,’’ Laura promises. ‘’He’s still young, and he hasn’t found the right person to ride with.’’

‘’You can touch him, Stiles. He won’t bite,’’

‘’If he does, I will sue this ranch,’’ Stiles threats, but there’s no heat behind it. He reaches out and touches the horse. ‘’I will still smell horse shit,’’ he adds.

‘’His name’s Fluffy,’’ Cora says and Stiles’ hand still.

‘’Fluffy?’’ he repeats. ‘’Who the hell wants to call a horse Fluffy? That’s a stupid name,’’

‘’Isaac named him’’ Cora laughs.

‘’Well, your future husband is stupid. You’re marrying stupidity.’’

‘’Derek, is your boyfriend always so blunt?’’ Laura asks, arching an eyebrow.

‘’He’s worse on the good days,’’ Derek replies and for some reason, basically insulting his pretend boyfriend, his two sisters coo.

 

Really, what is _life_?

- **X** -

‘’This is the stupidest thing I have ever done! Like, in the universe of ever!’’

Derek sighs deeply as he listens to Stiles complains for the past 15 minutes. There was a good thing about his sisters wanting them to go on a ride; he can get a break from his prying family. But then, there was also a bad thing about this: he’s now stock with Stiles. And he complains a lot. They don’t even trot, the horses just walk at a slow pace to accommodate Stiles who had never ride a horse before. But he still complains.

‘’Wait until my dad will hear about this,’’

‘’He will say that it’s good, you took some fresh air in your lungs and he will congratulate me.’’

‘’I will make sure to tell him that you…’’

‘’Me what?’’ he asks, clearly tired of hearing him complain. ‘’That I’m so horrible to you? That my entire family welcome you as part of the family and it hasn’t even been a day yet? Yeah, you have it hard. Free food for two weeks, what hardship you have!’’

‘’Don’t make fun of me,’’ he seethes. They ride in silence for a couple of minutes, before Stiles speaks again. ‘’This is stupid,’’

‘’What is?’’ Derek reluctantly asks, because he loved the silence they created.

‘’This wedding,’’ he admits and as he sees Derek’s ready to reply and defend his sister’s honor or something, Stiles quickly continue. ‘’Not the actual wedding. Just, we could have gone to the wedding day. Why did my dad made me go here for two weeks?’’

Derek relaxes his shoulders and huffs a small laugh. ‘’Celebrations in my family are a huge thing. You should have seen Laura’s wedding. It was a three weeks’ trip to the Bahamas. For some reason, Cora wants to do the wedding on the ranch, and it’s just an occasion for the family to bond. The extended family only come for the wedding day, though. If you panic so much about this wedding, you should see what we do for Christmas.’’

When Stiles remains silent, he continues. ‘’You dad didn’t do it to punish you,’’

‘’You don’t know that,’’ Stiles mumbles. ‘’You don’t know anything about me,’’ Derek sighs, frustrated. He’s frustrated that Stiles seems to always play the victim card.

‘’No, you’re right.’’ He admits. ‘’But I know your father.’’

 

Before Stiles can say anything else, the horse he’s on abruptly stops walking. ‘’Are you fucking kidding me?’’ Stiles laments as he tries to get the horse moving again, to no avail. ‘’Come on, you little shit,’’ Stiles says.

Derek shakes his head, trying not to laugh. He can laugh; he’s mouthed one of the biggest horses they have. ‘’He’s stubborn, just like you. I think you two make a pretty good pair,’’

‘’Shut up and help me!’’ Stiles orders, throwing insults at the unmoving horse.

‘’Nope,’’ Derek replies and leads his horse away, chuckling to himself as Stiles flails on his horse. They are about an hour away from the Hale property.

‘’You can’t leave me here!’’ Stiles shrieks indignantly. ‘’what about the wolves?’’

‘’Don’t worry,’’ Derek says above his shoulder as his horse leads him away. ‘’With an attitude like yours, they’ll leave you alone. Besides, there’s no wolves in California.’’

**-X-**

It took Stiles three hours for him to get back to the ranch. It’s early afternoon, and the early summer sun hit him hard. He’s sweaty, disgusting, he insults his horse in all the language he knows, which is basically just English and polish. The horse refused to move and even tried to eat his hair in more than one occasion. Stiles had to literally move him by pushing him from behind and once the horse sees the horse, he ran as fast as he could, leaving Stiles in the dust. Literally in the dust because when the horse had run off, in his excitement, he had pushed Stiles to the ground. Now, he’s sweaty, sang and grass is sticking to his skin and he doesn’t know where the horse is, but really, he doesn’t care at this point. Why did his dad thought it was a good idea, he doesn’t know. He desperately needs a shower. The house is still heavenly empty. He doesn’t know where the Hale family is, and frankly, he doesn’t care. He faintly hears people talking outside, but he doesn’t care to get to know what they do in their job. He will never, ever work somewhere with horseshit.

As he walks inside the kitchen, on the kitchen island, a single honey cruller is there with a note.

‘’Congrats, you’ve survived! We’re on the fields with the horses if you don’t want to be a recluse, city boy,’’

 

Stiles throws the note in the garbage, but he devours the honey cruller in two seconds.

**-X-**

 

Three days pass in a blur. Stiles is just friendly and charming and his bluntness, even though Derek thinks it’s insulting and he should know not to say those things, is actually appreciated and Laura thinks it’s even _cute._ He’s supposedly Cora’s new best friend as they bonded with their mutual love for video games and for Assassin’s Creed and how the movie was an insult to the actual video games and how Final Fantasy is their _ultimate_ favorite and how Stiles’ first crush was Ash Ketchum and it was the same for Cora and Derek thinks _how the hell can you have a crush on a cartoon_? It’s anime, Derek, anime! Cora retorts.

Stiles bonded with Laura first because of his bluntness and how brutally honest he can be, but they also bonded by sharing embarrassing Derek moments. Laura told Stiles all about Derek as a baby and toddler and all the juicy details of his private life. Meanwhile, Stiles told her embarrassing stories about Derek that he made up, because a month ago, they didn’t know each other. It just makes Derek wants to strangle Stiles, but at the same time, he has to admit he’s an amazing liar and it makes their relationship more… real.

Derek’s father bonded with him with the latest baseball matches and how the Mets are great and how the other teams suck. Talia bonded with him by talking about Beacon Hills and what was new there; Talia Hale is from Beacon Hills and aside from the occasional trip to Beacon Mall, she doesn’t go back there very often and she rejoiced to the idea to know what’s new with her old town. And apparently, Stiles is an excellent cook and he spends a big amount of time in the kitchen with Talia.

Sebastian, Laura’s husband, who is normally reserved and stoic, is actually opening up to Stiles. Sebastian is an English teacher and they talk for hours about Jane Austin and how she wrote anonymously because no one could know she was actually a woman. The same thing happened with J.K Rowling, believing that if it’s a female writer, the books wouldn’t sell well. And it leads them to talk about gender studies and whatnot.

With Isaac, the first thing Stiles told him is that he was stupid to name a horse with a stupid name. Then, for some reason, a friendship began. It was true love for Isaac, but he doesn’t know, at this point, if Stiles genuinely loves Isaac, or is it just pretend.

And it leaves him and Stiles; they barely speak to each other since they arrived, Derek still sleeps on the floor, and they bonded over nothing.

‘’We have a bonfire tonight,’’ Isaac announces to Stiles, sprawling on the couch.

‘’A bonfire?’’ Stiles repeats, arching an eyebrow.

‘’It’s some kind of Westwood tradition.’’ Sebastian explains as he’s reading a book.

‘’It’s not just ‘some kind’’’, Talia corrects as he pokes her head out of the kitchen. ‘’It’s a big deal for us. You’ll see, Stiles. It’s a lot of fun!’’ Talia seems to be a little more excited about a simple bonfire, but even stoic I-hate-everybody Derek loves the yearly bonfire. Isaac is once again engrossed in what is on TV, Stiles is playing with his lip piercing as he looks at it with a pocket mirror, and Derek silently looks at him, trying to figure him out, trying anything to make these two weeks less awkward. For his family, he must look the part of the devoted boyfriend, because they don’t look suspicious at all- especially Laura, who claimed to know Derek inside and out. But it’s mostly all Stiles; he just knows how to be affectionate to the right moment, knows to throw him these ‘’looks’’, and for anyone, it looks believable.

‘’Stop it,’’ Derek gently says as he nudges Stiles with his foot. Stiles arches an eyebrow in question, his mouth in a pout as he examines his piecing at his bottom lip. ‘’You’ll get this thing all infected.’’ He warns, but Stiles continues to look at him, unperturbed. ‘’I don’t know why people thinks it’s so cool to drill their bodies with holes,’’ he mumbles. A smirk graces Stiles’ lips, now red due to licking them.

‘’You can drill _my_ hole, if you want,’’ he replies smugly. Isaac, who was ungracefully sprawling on the couch next to Stiles snicker and Sebastian becomes red, hastily hiding his face in his book.

Before Derek can say anything else, his two sisters come in the livingroom, all dressed to impressed. Cora has a glittering short dress, all made of grey sequins. She twirled happily, and Isaac has a bemused smile. Laura has a very tight red dress with a cleavage that leaves nothing to the imagination.

 

‘’What do you guys think?’’ Laura asks.

‘’What is it for?’’ Derek asks critically.

‘’For the bonfire,’’ Laura replies, rolling his eyes. ‘’Is it sexy? I need your approval!’’

‘’Why do you need my opinion?’’ Derek asks. ‘’I’m your brother! I’m not supposed to be find you sexy,’’

‘’Fine, I’ll ask your boyfriend. Stiles?’’ Stiles stops touching his piercing and look up at the very gorgeous girl in front of him and he arches an eyebrow. Derek internally groans, always knowing what will come out of Stiles’ mouth is going to be a little too flattering.

‘’If wasn’t already bangin’ your brother, I’d bang you,’’ Stiles responds smoothly. Laura smiles, definitely pleased.

‘’Hey! It’s my wife you’re talking about,’’ Sebastian replies as he gets up of his chair, lightly hitting Stiles’ head with his book as he exits the room to go fetch himself a glass of water. His retort lacks any venom. He’s used to his wife’s flirty ways and people hitting on him and Derek presume, he’s now used to Stiles’ blatant honesty. He’s such a cool, zen guy that he’s the perfect match to Laura’s explosive nature.

‘’As much as I love my future wife in this beautiful dress,’’ Isaac says as he tugs at Cora’s hand, making her to sit on his lap. ‘’Why are you all dressed up? It’s going to be dark, people would be in jeans and plaid shirts.’’

‘’It’s no reason to dress with a plastic bag on our head! We work with horses all day, and in this town, there’s no real reason to dress up. I will get any occasion I can get,’’ Laura replies vehemently, glaring at his brother-in-law. Without any warning, Laura jumps on Stiles. He shrieks in surprise, automatically encircling her waist to balance them on the couch. ‘’So, Stiles,’’ she says. ‘’What are you going to wear tonight?’’

‘’Uh, this?’’ he says. He has on ripped jeans and a simply red shirt.

‘’That’s won’t do,’’ Cora replies.

‘’Just like Isaac said, people are going to be too drunk to notice how hot you ladies really are. Besides, you’re going to freeze your asses off out there. I prefer to keep my balls all warm, if you don’t mind,’’ Stiles retorts. ‘’Talking about balls, Laura, honey, you’re crushing mine, right now,’’  

He pushes her gently and gets up. ‘’I’m going for a walk,’’ he says as he heads for the door.

‘’I’ll come with you,’’ Isaac offers. Derek is sure Stiles is going to refuse, probably wanting some alone time away from the Hale craze, but instead, he smiles warmly in Isaac’s direction and nods.

Well, he’d be damned.

**-X-**

The bonfire, like every year, happens in a wide clearing at the edge of town. It’s a family-friendly tradition, even though the young children only stay at the beginning of the night, and teenagers and young adults stay well pass midnight, sharing booze now that the children are long gone. Most of the town shows up every time and this year, Cora is the center of attention because everybody wants to congratulate the future bride, and of course, Stiles is also in the center of attention, because everybody wants to meet Derek Hale’s boyfriend.

Derek mingles, like his mom wanted him to, but not too much. He stays on the sideline, silently drinking his beer as he watches his little sister talking energetically with girls she went to high school with. He sees Stiles from time to time, socialising with people he doesn’t know, and probably don’t care while they all think he’s adorable, and perfect for Derek. Isaac follows him like a lost puppy, but Derek knows he’s going to get his heart broken when their deal is off. He sees Laura making out with Sebastian behind some bushes and he rolls his eyes at that; she’s always going to be a teenager at heart.

When the music became too loud, his several bottles of beer flooding through his veins, and his eyes heavy with sleep, it was past midnight. The only people around the bonfire now are the party-goers; the teenagers who had an extended curfew because of the bonfire, the stoner college kids that came home from campus for the summer, and, well, his family.

So he decides to go home. His sight was a little bit blurry, but he navigates through the short distance from the clearing to the ranch with no problem.

He was not drunk. Just a little light around the edges, but man, that’s heavenly. He staggers a little when he opens the house; he expected the house to be in pure darkness, but there’s some light in the kitchen.

When he enters the kitchen, he sees no one, but the lights above the stove are on. When he goes to turn off the light, he jumps to feet in the air when he sees a pair of brown eyes looking up at him, chewing on something.

‘ _’Stiles_ , Jesus Christ,’’ Derek says, a hand on his heart.

‘’Sorry,’’ he says, but he doesn’t sound apologetic. He’s sitting Indian-style, leaning against the kitchen island.

 

‘’What are you doing here?’’

‘’Eating, don’t you see?’’ Stiles says as he shows him what he’s eating. It’s a Pillsbury’s chocolate chip cookies dough.

‘’You’re eating cookie dough?’’ Derek asks in disbelief, his face contorting in disgust. Stiles doesn’t seems faze by that, continuing eating the dough.

‘’Yep! Don’t tell your mom, tough.’’ Derek sighs and, what the hell, he has nothing to lose- he sits on the cold tiles next to Stiles, his stretched legs hitting the stove. ‘’It’s disgusting. You’re disgusting,’’

‘’No way, dude. Cookie dough is the best!’’

‘’But it’s dough! You’re not supposed to eat it, but to bake it,’’ Derek feels like he chastised a young child, but at that point, he might as well be.

‘’You would change your mind if you eat it,’’ Stiles says, offering the dough to him, but Derek shakes his head. ‘’Your loss,’’ Stiles shrugs and takes a big bite of the dough. ‘’What are you doing here, anyways? Tired, already?’’

‘’Well, it’s nearly 1 AM,’’ Stiles arches an eyebrow.

‘’So? When I was in New York, I partied all night!’’

‘’And you, why are you in the kitchen, alone, eating cookie dough?’’ Derek asks, just to see Stiles shut up about his New York exploits.

‘’This place ain’t New York,’’ he gives as explanation.

‘’You seemed to have fun,’’

‘’Well, you told me to blend in, I did.’’ Stiles retorts.

‘’Maybe a little too much,’’ he casually replies, thinking about how his mom’s eyes sparkle since they arrived, how Cora immediately warmed to Stiles, even though she’s known to be an Ice Queen more often than not, and more importantly, how Isaac befriended him so quickly when he usually has a hard time with people he doesn’t know.

‘’What is that supposed to mean?’’

‘’Nothing… just, think that in two weeks, you wouldn’t be there, anymore. I just- want you to think of it this way,’’

 

They stay in silence for a few minutes; it’s the longest time they had with each other without bickering, and Derek finds it nice. Relaxing. Easier. Easy to forget that the boy next to him is a thief who, if his dad wasn’t the Sheriff, would probably have a criminal record as long as arm. In the quiet, where Stiles looks straight ahead, and when Derek this advantage of it to look at Stiles’ profile to see him chewing on the cookie dough, hair is messy and he looks clothes that barely makes him look like an adult, and in that moment, it’s easy just to imagine him as a normal college student with his sneakers, his graphic tees, his grey beanie, even though it’s not cold and his lip piercing, because that’s what kids like to do.

Before he can get too distracted, Stiles speaks again, turning his head to look at Derek. ‘’You have a great family,’’ he says softly, as if he doesn’t want to disturb the quiet. Derek smiles softly- the first compliment he got from Stiles.

‘’They’re the greatest,’’

‘’They just- they just welcome me; you know? They didn’t have to.’’

‘’You’re like a part of the family for them, now,’’ Derek admits, and it’s true. When their family loves, they love hard and fast and for always. That’s why it’s going to break Derek’s heart when the guy they had learn to love and accept into their lives so readily is just going to disappear after the wedding. The Hale family don’t get attached to just anyone- they did with Isaac, he was from an abusive home and in high school, the Hales agreed to take care of him when Derek told them about his friend’s situation and he could just have ended up into foster care with no hope. He quickly became a part of the family, and after high school he began to work on the ranch, not interested in college. After Cora’s first year of college, when she came back with more maturity, that’s when they began their romance.

When the Hale family love, they love big time. They were never like that with Derek’s other partners. With Jennifer and the others, they were never so quick to love them. With Stiles, it was love at first sight, the first day. Something Derek doesn’t get. Even though he thinks Stiles is annoying, he must be lovable for people to love him that quickly.

‘’I mean, look at me,’’ Stiles huffs. ‘’I wear dirty sneakers, or converse, depending on the day. I have comics t-shirts, ripped jeans, tattoos and piercing. And I’m so blunt I’m mean, but I like it,’’ he shrugs. ‘’I like the way I am, but I’m well aware I’m not boyfriend material.’’

‘’You think my family can judge you? Laura once went to the grocery store with white pants and a very visible blood stain at her butt because she didn’t have any tampons and she just didn’t feel like changing her pants,’’ that makes Stiles chuckles.

‘’I’m just saying- they welcomed me in like I’m their bestie, or something. They didn’t have to do that.’’ He says. ‘’They’re great people. You’re lucky to have them,’’

“So are you,’’ Derek replies. ‘’You have a great father, Stiles,’’ Stiles scoffs. ‘’It’s true! He’s brave, he’s kind, he’s a fair boss and he’s…’’

‘’Why don’t you bone him, then? You seem to idolize him,’’ Derek’s eyes are wide with disbelief. How can someone talk about their parent that way? It’s crossing the line, especially to a man like Noah Stilinski.

He grits his teeth together. ‘’We talk a lot about you,’’ he finally says.

‘’I’m sure he does,’’ he replies darkly.

‘’It’s true,’’ Derek retorts and he doesn’t know why he feels the need to explain to Stiles that the Sheriff loves him, and he talks about him a lot like a proud parent would, but he wants Stiles, for some reason, to listen to him and believe him. ‘’He tells me about his boy, in New York. He tells me about how, no matter what, in any circumstance, he still loves you,’’

‘’Wow,’’ Stiles replies, monotone after a moment. ‘’That’s deeply profound, even for you. And I’m sure, after all this cute talk about his own biological son, he’s coming home after a hard day of work to his new family,’’ he says, his words biting and harsh.

‘’You mean Melissa and Scott, your family?’’ Derek replies with a bit as well. He had met the two of them when he moved to Beacon Hills. Melissa, divorced for a long time, and a hard working nurse who deserved the happy ending she got with a new man in his life who respect her. And Scott, a young man, always smiling, always charming, who’s still in college and who deserves a father. They don’t deserve Stiles’ hostility. He knows Stiles’ deal, now. A young, hurt boy who got lost along the way for whatever reason, a misunderstood young man who can’t find hope and happiness in a blank future and is utterly disgusted by the idea that his father can move on with a new woman, and therefore, thinks he’s been replaced.

Being a cop, he’s seen this scenario played out a lot of time with criminals, and people who act out.

‘’They’re not my family,’’

‘’They are,’’ Derek argue tiredly. He doesn’t know why he’s suddenly becoming Stiles’ shrink. He just wants to go to sleep, but for some reason, he stays.

‘’So they can just sit around a warm meal, living all happy lives, Scott and his new girlfriend can just sit at the table at _my_ house and pretend everything is okay?’’ Stiles asks, his words shaky with sadness and rage, his half eaten cookie dough all but forgotten on the cold floor.

Derek has enough of this. He stands up and faces Stiles.

 

‘’Enough, already! Stop feeling like the victim!’’ he says harshly. ‘’You walked out of their lives like the little misunderstood, angsty teenager that you were! You decided to fuck up your life, not them. Stop acting like a child, and grow up. Be the man your father wanted you to be,’’

Stiles doesn’t say anything; for once, he’s speechless. He stands up slowly, still facing Derek and without a word, he walks up the stairs. Derek closes his eyes, hoping, wishing that he didn’t screw up any semblance of respect he was capable of building with Stiles.

When Derek goes to the bedroom half an hour later, Stiles is already in bed, possibly fast asleep. He laid on the hard floor, trying to get comfortable in his sleeping bag, when Stiles moves the covers.

‘’Come in the bed with me,’’ he says, but it sounds more like a demand. Without speaking, Derek obliged.  ‘’We can sleep together, now,’’ Stiles states when Derek is now laying on his side of the bed. ‘’But keep your filthy paws to yourself or else I will call my dad myself to tell him his favorite deputy just molested his son.’’ Stiles says, turning so his back faces Derek. ‘’And if you kick me while you sleep, I will kick your ass so far into the ground, you’ll end up in China,’’

It’s safe to say that the bed sharing is kind of a peace-offering, but they never talk about their midnight conversation after that.

**-X-**

A week later, when the wedding’s preparations become too much, and Cora is so stressful you can’t stay in a room with her for more than two minutes, that’s when things get complicated. Not complicated, _per say,_ but that’s when Lydia Martin shows up; long and silky red hair, shiny red lipstick, a cute floral dress to match with his high heels shoes and as many times as she’s been on the ranch, she’s always dressed like she’s going at a cocktail in Manhattan and she has that _look_ , that knowing, calculating look when her green eyes stare at Stiles for the first time.

Lydia met Cora in college, in UCLA, in their first year. It was orientation week, they were in the same dorm room building and as soon as they learnt that they were from the same place, with Lydia growing up in Beacon Hills, merely half an hour from Westood, they hit it off right away and became best friend, and now, at Cora’s wedding, Lydia is one of her bridesmaids. Lydia was never close to her family; a rich father who paid anything she wants, but live with his third wife somewhere on the Est coast, or in Europe somewhere. From what Derek knows, he moves a lot. A mother, always so drunk and messed up that Lydia always preferred to visit the Hales on Christmas and during the summer, and just like Isaac, the Hales opened their arms and hearts for her and she quickly became family.

That’s why Derek knows that look she has everything she looks at Stiles. She bluntly ignores him since she arrives, and well, he doesn’t make a move to talk to her as well. He knows when he’s not wanted, or when Stiles murmurs ‘’Stuck up bitch,’’ when she passed right by him, ignoring him.

‘’She’s like that, sometimes,’’ Derek told him that evening when they are on the porch, Lydia and Cora talking quietly under the shade of a willow tree. Stiles huffs.

‘’She’s just as beautiful as I remember,’’ he says it normally, like he’s just stating a fact. He shrugs when Derek looks at her. ‘’I went to school with her. Probably don’t even know who I am. Didn’t know I existed when were in high school together. You know, she was in the popular crowd and all… anyways, from what I can see, she’s still a stuck up bitch.’’ He sneers, then laughs. ‘’Well, she still makes me feel some kind of feelings to my penis, but a bitch stays a bitch, right?’’ Derek ignores the crude comment as he looks over at his sister and the young woman he’s now used to see in their family pictures. ‘’I don’t know why a cool girl like your sister hang out with Lydia Martin,’’ he comments.

‘’Lydia is a cool person,’’ Derek says quickly, feeling the need to defend her. ‘’She’s been through a lot with her family and- and we are now her family. She’s harmless. Maybe she was that way in high school, but she’s not like that anymore.’’

‘’No?’’ Stiles innocently asks. ‘’She still ignores me,’’

‘’Maybe she has her reasons.’’ Derek replies. ‘’She can still be cold sometimes,’’ he admits. ‘’But she’s not a bitch. It takes time for her to warm up to people,’’

Dinner that day was uneventful. Lydia, as the new guest, is the center of attention. She was telling the family how much she was excited about this new job in San Francisco as an attorney. She seems sweet enough as she talks with Talia and Leo, Stiles thinks as he watches her, laughing absently like everyone else.

That same evening, when everybody is doing their own business, Derek is sitting on the porch, alone, looking up at the stars.

‘’It’s a beautiful evening,’’ Lydia comments lightly as she comes outside, sitting on the railing of the porch, facing him. She smiles prettily at him, her dimple in her cheek deepening.

‘’Yeah… it is. It’s looking good for the wedding, though. They announce sunny days all week,’’ Derek says just to have something to say, to feel the void.

‘’It’s good to see you again,’’

‘’It’s not like we don’t see each other often,’’ Derek replies, chuckling. ‘’Last month, Easter, remember?’’

 

 

Lydia kicks him lightly on the leg. ‘’You know what I mean! When you were living in San Francisco, we were hanging out all the time! Now, I only got Aiden, Ethen, Erica, Boyd…’’

‘’Well, you seem to be surrounded by amazing people,’’

‘’It’s not the same,’’ Lydia huffs.

‘’San Fran is like an hour away from here. Not that far, you know, if you wanna grab a beer, sometime,’’

‘’Well… I know my home town is not the most exciting place in the world, so if you’re tired giving speed tickets and go to the heart of the action in a moving city like San…’’

‘’Lydia, stop that,’’ Derek says, tiredly. While his family were over the moon a few months ago and he told them he was moving to a closer town, his friends -and Lydia- in the city weren’t too overjoyed by that, even though they understood and he still visits regularly. But still, after two years, he just couldn’t take it anymore. He tried to make it work, when his whole world was crumbling around him, but after almost two years of trying to make things work, to make things right, the Golden Gate wasn’t shining anymore. He needed to get out. And Lydia should understand and respect that.

‘’I’m just saying,’’ she says innocently. Her features soften. ‘’You’re still mooning over her,’’ she states. He frowns, knowing who she was referring too, and frankly, no, he was not in love with her anymore. And this love was shredded two years ago. Is he still hurt? Humiliated? When he thinks long enough about it, of course he is. But he’s moved on from her, he just didn’t move on from her betrayal. ‘’I can get you a date,’’ she offers kindly, smiling brightly like it’s the best idea _ever._ ‘’I know this guy; he’s also an attorney, working in the same firm as me, he’s charming, tall, handsome, smart, he tailored his tuxedos and he has the best skin tone ever,’’

Derek arches an eyebrow at her, looking at her incredulously. ‘’Uh, no,’’ he retorts at a loss for words. ‘’I do have a boyfriend, he’s right inside,’’ he says. Even though it’s a blatant lie and Stiles would probably won’t care if he dates another guy, because they are not together in real life, and this is just a scam, a lie, and he’s a terrible person, but he does it anyways because he respects Noah Stilinski so much he can’t say no to him.

She rolls her eyes, annoyed. ‘’That boy?’’ she huffs. ‘’That thief who ran away in New York like the coward he is?’’ Derek stands up quickly, and subconsciously turns his head to make sure they are alone. Lydia crosses her arms, defiantly.

‘’You- you know what- that he-‘’

‘’That he’s a criminal? That your mother welcomes a thief and god know what else he is, in her home? Yes,’’

‘’How-how did…’’

‘’It’s Beacon Hills, Derek,’’ she says dryly. ‘’Not New York or L.A. Everybody knows everybody. The kid’s got a bad reputation,’’ she says, checking her nails like what she’s saying is not a bid deal. ‘’When I first saw him today, I thought that Talia brought home another stray, but when he was introduced as your boyfriend, I thought it was a joke,’’

‘’Well, it’s true. He’s my boyfriend,’’ Derek says, confident. ‘’And I will appreciate it if you respect him,’’

Lydia furrows her brows, clearly not happy. ‘’You’re building your life with a thief, Derek. He’s clearly not trustworthy,’’

‘’And you know him so well,’’ Derek says coldly. ‘’You haven’t seen him since, what, high school? He has changed. I know about his past, Lydia. We all make mistakes, but he- he’s not like that anymore. He left this life behind. You can ask his dad, if you want.’’ He shrugs, but his heart is pounding hard in his chest. He’s lying through his teeth, but he hopes it’s enough to fool her.

‘’You have no idea what he did, do you?’’ she asks tentatively. Derek gulps hard, because now, what? Did he kill someone, too?

‘’It’s none of your business, Lydia.’’

‘’Of course it is,’’ she gently says. ‘’Because I want you to be happy.’’ She arches an eyebrow at him, leaning against the railing. ‘’He’s not a good person, Derek. He stole from his father,’’ she says coldly. ‘’What are you waiting, that he steals from you, too? He can’t be trusted,’’ she shrugs. Derek opens his mouth to say something, anything, but he can’t find the words. Lydia caught that and purse her lips. “You didn’t know,’’ she states matter-of-factly, then her frown deepens and a scowl appears. ‘’How the hell can you built something with someone when they don’t tell you a huge part of themselves?’’ she asks to no one in particular.

‘’Enlighten me, then,’’ Derek says dryly, because deep inside, he’s dying to know. Stiles doesn’t owe him anything. They are not a real couple, so Lydia’s anger doesn’t belong in this conversation. At the end of the day, they both have separate lives and Stiles does whatever he wants. It doesn’t affect him, but he’s just too damn curious for his own good.

‘’Stiles hacked into his dad’s bank account. Took a pretty big sum, then use it to leave for New York and to do god knows what.’’ She says simply, stepping back from the railing. ‘’He’s a fraud.’’

‘’How do you know all that?’’ he asks, annoyed, even though he probably already knows the answer.

 

“Small town,’’ she shrugs. ‘’It gets around.’’ She goes to leave him to it, probably going inside to be with Cora and Isaac.

‘’Lydia,’’ Derek calls. She turns around, offering him a small, sad smile. ‘’Give him a chance?’’ he says, and it sounds more like a question. After she hesitates for a few seconds, she nods.

‘’Only for you,’’ she says and Derek sighs in relief. He can’t care less about what Stiles is doing, even though doing it to his father, a man Derek loves like a second father, makes his heart aches and his hatred for Stiles intensified. But if he wants to get through this, and to continue to fool his family, he doesn’t need Lydia giving Stiles a hard time for the remaining of their stay. Nobody wants to be on Lydia’s bad side.

**-X-**

‘’I’m deeply uncomfortable right now,’’ Stiles says, looking at himself in the three mirrors in front of him. Lydia rolls her eyes as she does his tie.

‘’What did you want to do? Going to a wedding in sneakers and jeans?’’ Lydia asks flippantly. Stiles shrugs in response, like it’s no big deal. Lydia scowls at him. She always scowls it him.

‘’Lydia, we could have gone to his house for a tux,’’ Cora argues, but still eying him critically up and down.

‘’The last time I wore a tux, it was at my mom’s funeral and I was eight,’’ Stiles replies.

‘’Then borrow one from your dad!’ Laura replies, touching the racks with several tuxedos.

‘’Yeah, great idea,’’ Lydia replies with a fake smile. ‘’Let’s just pretend that this isn’t Cora’s best day of her life and put her brother’s boyfriend in a too large, brown tuxedo that smells like the 80’.’’

‘’Hey! My dad has good taste,’’ Stiles defends weakly. Lydia pushes him inside the fitting room, for the million times.

They are at Macy’s in Beacon Hills to shop, like Lydia had said, for the perfect tux. It’s _been six hours,_ and they are still there. 

‘’Why would you go to a wedding without any clothes for the event?’’ Stiles can hear Lydia from the other side and Laura’s dry reply. She is as fed up of this trip as he is. He dresses quickly, then looks in the mirror. He has to say that he looks _good._ Unlike the other suits he tried on, this one is all in black, with the tie, and the button down shirt underneath the sleek tuxedo. With his disheveled hair and his lip ring, he looks damn _good._ He was never one of those people looking in the mirror, admiring how good looking they are. He always shies away from the mirror if he can help it. He has no problem with the way he looks, he just never really flaunts his body, but now, twirling around in this tiny room, looking all dashing for the first time in a very long time, he can say that he appreciates what he sees.

And for a fleeting moment, he thinks about Derek and what he’s going to think when he sees him in his tuxedo. But as quickly as the thought came, it’s gone.

When he comes out of the dressing room, Laura stares at him with her mouth open, Cora jumps on her feet a little as she claps, and Lydia studies him critically.

‘’You’re so fucking gorgeous, damn,’’ Laura comments absently. ‘’If you weren’t dating my brother and Sebastian wasn’t in the picture, I’d have you,’’

‘’Well, thank you,’’ Stiles says. ‘’Your compliments touch me,’’ he feigns a pout as he touches his heart, smirking slyly. Stiles has to admit that good genes run in this family and when he likes to turn on girls, she’s definitely his type. If only Derek isn’t so stuck up, they could have a threesome. He slept with two sisters, once. And another time with two twin brothers, Ethan and Aiden. When it comes to sex, he thinks incest is totally hot.

‘’I’m not sure about the ring, though,’’ Lydia comments. Stiles rolls his eyes at her and he intentionally sucks his button lip between his teeth, grazing the metal ring.

‘’I think the piercing looks cool,’’ Cora says, throwing a gentle smile Stiles’ way. He smiles back at her; he knows that she’s the kind of girl to stick up for people and one day, she will always have her brother’s partner’s side. ‘’We’re in the 21st century, piercings and tattoos are totally okay and cool. It’s a way to express yourself, it’s art,’’

‘’If you’re a hippie and you live under the Brooklyn bridge,’’ Lydia says. ‘’It’s your wedding, and everything has to be perfect! Stiles here,’’ she points a well-manicured nail in his direction and her eyes shown nothing but hatred the second she looks in his direction and he shrinks a little under her gaze. ‘’Will meet all of your family. He needs to stop being so bloody blunt all the time, start acting with class and you can’t make a good impression on someone when you have a piece of metal sticking out of your lip!’’

She storms out of the store without waiting for anyone and Stiles watches her go with a incredulous look.

‘’What’s wrong with her?’’ Cora asks, surprised by his friend’s outburst. Stiles merely shrugs.

‘’I guess she hasn’t changed since her prom queen days,’’ Stiles comments, oddly cold, because why would he care about someone like her? She used to ignore him, she still did when she arrived a few days ago, and now she acts like a bitch because he doesn’t like her ‘’brother’s’’ boyfriend? Screw her.

**-X-**

‘’Honey, you got something on your mouth,’’ Cora says as she points a finger to Isaac’s mouth.

‘’Wha-‘’ before he can finish his sentence, Cora kisses him.

‘’Chocolate,’’ she says, as she obnoxiously licks her lips. Isaac rolls his eyes as he continues mixing the ingredient for the cake they are doing. They are all in the kitchen, the Hale children, Isaac, Sebastian, Lydia and Stiles. It’s cramped in the usually large kitchen, but Stiles guesses that if you put seven grown adults into the place, it’s going to be cramped. It has been a slow and rainy day and it’s just a couple of days before the wedding. Cora is still restless, even more than usual and to evaporate some nerves, Stiles decides they should bake. His mom always used to say that baking is the best way to relax and she’s right.

That’s why Cora keeps kissing Isaac when he accidently gets chocolate batter on his cheeks and lips. Stiles sincerely thinks he does it on purpose. Laura is no better, getting the mixing of icing sugar with the milk for the icing unto her fingers and get Sebastian to lick them clean.

And Lydia, always critical and silent every time she watches Stiles -he’s sure he has a vendetta against him, or something- finally opens her mouth when the cake is in the oven. Seven grown adults to make one cake- well, truth be told, Derek is just leaving against the kitchen island, checking his phone as his sisters (and Isaac and Stiles) do all the work and Sebastian only participate by licking off the icing from his wife. Lydia is simply sitting on a stool, drinking wine.

‘’Why don’t you guys kiss?’’ she asks, eyes innocent as she slowly takes a sip. Everyone is now silent- all the laughter, gone and everybody is looking at Lydia curiously. She merely rolls her eyes. ‘’I’m just curious!’’ she continues, ignoring the way Derek is now looking at her. ‘’I’ve been here for a few days and you barely touch each other. If I were in love, in a somewhat new relationship, I’d be all over that person,’’ she explains, shrugging.

‘’We like to keep it with no PDA,’’ Derek says with a straight face. Lydia rolls his eyes and Laura huffs.

‘’Lydia’s right,’’ Laura says and Derek glares at his sister because of course, she always sides with Lydia. ‘’You two are just as innocent as baby penguins,’’

‘’I’m just… a prude,’’ Stiles says and winces, knowing how bad it sounds.

‘’With a ring like that in your lip, you’re nothing but innocent,’’ Lydia retorts.

‘’Hey! That’s judgmental,’’ Stiles says, offended.

 

‘’Besides, Isaac is just the most prude person I have ever met,’’ Lydia says. ‘’And yet, he has no problem making out with Cora every chance he gets,’’

She looks at Derek with an arch eyebrow, like a challenge. She wants him to prove her wrong.

But Derek frowns at her and crosses his arms over his chest. ‘’I have nothing to prove to…’’

He’s interrupted by cold, long fingers gripping his chin gently and lips firmly pressed against his. He’s sure it lasted for several seconds as Stiles deepens the kiss, and Derek, taking aback, closes his eyes in shock and grips the counter in surprise. As he opens his eyes again, he’s meant by big, almost fearful brown eyes, staring at him. Someone whistle in the background, but Derek doesn’t know if it’s Laura, or Cora and right now, he doesn’t care. He can still faintly taste chocolate on his lips, with undertone of coffee.

He loves it, and he’s surprised that he wants more.

Stiles kissed him, and he loved it.

He doesn’t know what to do with that realization. Luckily for both of them, nobody talks about it anymore after Laura made a crude remark and a wink from Cora and an eye roll from Lydia, but Stiles is oddly silent as he absently listens to what Laura has to say. As Derek watches him in the corner of his eyes, he looks absent-minded.

As Lydia, Cora and Laura are bickering about if lavender was a good color for the bridesmaid dresses, and Sebastian and Isaac talk about baseball in the living room, that’s when Derek notices Stiles slipping away to go outside.

That’s where he finds him, a few minutes later, in the barn.

‘’I thought you hated horses,’’ Derek says as he walks next to him. Stiles turns his head from where he was watching Fluffy. He shrugs.

‘’I hate the smell of fucking horseshit,’’ he comments nonchalantly. ‘’But with time, I figure they are alright,’’

Derek looks around himself, then to his black horse, and then to Fluffy, the spotted, golden-colored horse who get stranded with Stiles days ago.

It’s wet outside, and the sky is still a deep grey color, but it doesn’t rain anymore.

‘’Let’s go for a ride,’’ Derek suggests.

Stiles squints at him and lick over his lip ring. ‘’You’re going to let me starve to death in the middle of nowhere with a stubborn horse again?’’

Derek huffs and for the very first time since they met, he genuinely laughs. ‘’Come on,’’ he says as he goes to get his horse. ‘’I’ll get Shadow. Go take Fluffy,’’ Stiles rolls his eyes at the stupid name.

‘’One day, I shall rename the damn horse,’’

‘’You’ll hurt Isaac’s feelings,’’

‘’Yeah, well, he hurt the horse’s feelings the moment he decided to call him that’’ he retorts.

**-X-**

They were silent as they ride. They stopped near a riverbank not far from the ranch and Derek, laying on the grass, watches as Stiles throws rock in the river. It’s the first time they willingly hang out together without gritting their teeth together and fake a smile. It feels nice, natural, even though they haven’t shared a single word since they came near the river. It’s still nice, though. The two weeks are almost over, and it’s too soon, or too quick to notice some kind of change between them, but Derek can safely say he doesn’t hate him like he used to.

He has a character, an attitude, but somehow, it became endearing. Plus, he has his family’s blessing since the first day he arrived, which can never be good.

‘’The wedding’s in a couple of days,’’ Stiles says as he sits next to him, the horses not too far from them. Derek jumps, startles by Stiles’ proximity, being lost in thoughts and didn’t hear him come. ‘’Excited?’’

‘’I’m not the one to get married,’’ Derek says nonchalantly. Stiles looks at him, unimpressed.

‘’Who are you, Beverly Hofstadter?’’

‘’Who?’’ Derek asks, frowning.

‘’Big Bang Theory?’’ when Derek shakes his head, Stiles scoffs. ‘’You really need to get educated in pop culture. It’s pathetic,’’

‘’You’re pathetic,’’ he retorts playfully.

Stiles gives him another insult, but Derek doesn’t bother replying as Stiles completely laid down on the grass, his forearms pillowing his head as he looks up at the sky. ‘’I’m sorry I kissed you,’’ he says, almost in a whisper. ‘’I know it wasn’t in the contract, or… whatever. Our credibility was on the line, so…’’ he tries to joke.

‘’It’s alright,’’ Derek shrugs. ‘’I- the kiss was good,’’ he admits, refusing to look at Stiles, instead looking at the blue sky. It cleared out nicely and the rain was long gone. Stiles gives him a sly smirk, eyes shining a golden color. ‘’I mean, it was alright,’’

‘’Why don’t you just admit that the kiss was the best thing to ever happen to you and you totally have the hots for me,’’

‘’I don’t,’’ Derek hurriedly says, looking at Stiles with an annoyed expression. Stiles rolls his eyes and laughs freely. When Stiles stops laughing and stares at Derek with something in his eyes akin to smugness, Derek pushes his shoulder lightly. ‘’Shut up,’’

Stiles chuckles some more, but he doesn’t stay on the subject, fortunately for Derek. Instead, he says after a couple seconds of silence: ‘’A unicorn riding a whale and a pink sheep blocking the way,’’

Derek frowns down at him. ‘’What?’’

‘’The clouds, look! Those two clouds are the shape of a unicorn riding a whale and a pink shape,’’ he points at the giant clouds over their heads. ‘’It’s right there,’’

Frankly, Derek doesn’t see it. If he squints, he can maybe, barely see the shape of a deform heart, but that’s it. ‘’How can you see something like that?’’

‘’Imagination, Derek’’ Stiles explains like he talks to a small child.

‘’How can you say that the sheep is pink? It’s fucking white,’’

‘’Use your fucking imagination,’’ Stiles says again. Derek rolls his eyes.

‘’Looking at the clouds’ shapes are basically looking at the _actual_ shapes. You can’t make that up, you’re just cheating,’’

‘’I just have a wonderful mind,’’ Stiles shrugs. ‘’My mom and I used to go to these pic-nicks when I was a kid, before she got sick.’’ He says, and his eyes cloud over, like he’s lost in a memory he hasn’t found in a long time. ‘’We laid on the grass, looking up at the sky. We just… made up shapes, even though they weren’t real. Then we invented stories about the shapes we made in our heads. There were the most magnificent stories ever told… after she died, I stopped doing that.’’

Derek lays completely on the grass, his head almost touching Stiles’. They don’t talk for a good minute, before Derek points to a cloud. ‘’I see a cat.’’ He declares softly. ‘’Or it can be a dog.’’

‘’A transcat,’’ Stiles says.

‘’A what?’’

‘’A cat who wants to be a dog,’’ Stiles says and Derek just looks at him, perplexed. Stiles laughs, throwing his head back and showing more of his neck. Derek has to shallow hard at the fine line of his neck. ‘’Come on, it’s funny,’’

‘’Your jokes are horrible,’’ Derek rolls his eyes. It’s the biggest conversation they’ve ever had, and weirdly enough, Derek wouldn’t mind having another conversation with him.

**-X-**

The wedding is beautiful. Stiles watched on the sidelines as they hired people to decorate the ranch to give this piece of land a magical touch. White chairs are lined up as lilies lavender-colored are scattered on the ground. An alter was made and it overlooks the endless yellow fields surrounded them. An oak tree stands tall, and proud. When Derek grew up, he always thought the tree looked lonely, all alone with the fields, but now, though, as the man between the smiling bride and groom binding them together for life, he knows the tree had a purpose. Little lights hang from the branches, adding a touch to the decoration. It was simple, yet effective, just like Cora.

A lot of people are here to celebrate the union. Friends, family members, long distance relatives, and people from town came for the event.

At the reception, on the other side of the property, paper lanterns are hanging in the air, tables with fine culinary, there’s a dance floor in the middle and an orchestra is playing music. The lavender color is really the star in the wedding as the bridesmaid have all lavender dress, but the cut is different on every dress. Huge lavender and white lilies are the table centerpiece and a large and very long buffet is endless with a chocolate fountain as the star.

It's the evening, now. Many people laugh, congratulate the newlyweds, and they reacquaint with people they haven’t seen in a long time. Stiles had dragged Derek on the dancefloor.

‘’Show your family we’re a happy, very much on love couple,’’ he had murmured in Derek’s ear when he had refused to dance. Derek resigns himself and leads the way. And just like with Derek’s immediate family, Stiles is just as charming with Cora’s friends, the family’s friends and the Hale’s relatives.

Derek caught Stiles leering at someone in the distance. As he followed his gaze, he sees his cousin, Malia, blushing under Stiles’ heated gaze. Derek rolls his eyes.

‘’Don’t even think about that,’’ he says.

‘’Why not?’’ Stiles asks innocently as he drags his gaze from Malia to Derek. ‘’She’s hot, I haven’t got laid in a while,’’ he whines.

‘’You’re supposed to be my boyfriend,’’ he hisses. ‘’Don’t screw this up by screwing my cousins,’’

 

‘’If nobody knows…’’

‘’Yeah, and Malia got the biggest mouth on her. Everybody will know,’’

‘’I can always try…’’ he turns around to look at other people, but Derek squeezes his hand almost painfully. ‘’Don’t even think about that. I forbid you,’’

‘’Jealous?’’ Stiles asks, a smirk gracing his lips.

‘’Smart,’’ he retorts as he subtly nods towards his cousin. On her arm, there’s her new boyfriend, Theo. He can hear Stiles groaning next to him.

‘’That’s just my luck,’’ he says with a sigh. ‘’I like them fresh and single,’’

‘’You’re disgusting,’’

‘’And you have a stick in your butt,’’ he replies. ‘’Loosen up a little!’’

To prove his point, Stiles starts to dance in a goofy way that just draw more attention as Derek awkwardly stands there, shaking his head. Someone chuckles next to him.

‘’You having fun, guys?’’ Talia asks, Leo holding her waist as they stopped dancing. Stiles nods in an exaggerate fashion.

‘’I do!’’ he says. ‘’Unlike grumpy cat, here,’’ he lightly punches Derek’s shoulder. Leo smiles warmly at Stiles. ‘’I actually enjoy myself,’’ and it’s true. _He does._ He always thought of marriages and especially weddings as a social construct to get free gifts and to show your peers how of an accomplished person you are because you got hitched.

When Talia and Leo got on their way on the other side of the garden, Stiles continue dancing like a fool.

‘’Would you stop?’’ Derek says, annoyed as he still stands awkwardly as Stiles dances around him.

‘’Why?’’ Stiles shouts over the music.

‘’People are staring,’’ Derek argues. Stiles rolls his eyes as he starts to jump.

‘’And you should stop thinking about what others are thinking. It must be tiring. I’m tired for you,’’

‘’The plan for you to come to this wedding is not to make a fool of yourself,’’ he hisses as he grabs Stiles’ hand to make him stop jumping. 

Stiles smirks and bit his upper lip then, but one of those ‘’I-bite-my-lips-to-make-them-redder’’ kind of way. He looks around him and see the party in full swing under the moonlight. ‘’Do you know what would me people stare?’’

Derek sighs. ‘’Wha-‘’ before he finishes his sentence, full lips that vaguely taste like the chocolate truffle they had and the expensive white wine Stiles had at the makeshift bar were on his. He normally would just have push him away, disgusted. But instead, he pushes forward, and intend to take Stiles’ cheek in the palm of his hand, but before he can do that, the kiss ends.

‘’There,’’ Stiles says as he quickly looks around to see Cora watching them with a faint smile, as well as several other guests, always curious in moments of affections. ‘’People are staring for a very good reason,’’ he shrugs. When Derek remains silent, Stiles says: ‘’I have to go to the bathroom, so…’’

He leaves the reception and goes straight to the house. The big house is empty; the whole family gathered outside. He goes upstairs and splashes some water onto his face to regain some control, or some sense of reasoning.  The first time he had kissed Derek, he had felt fireworks. Real, shattered, red and yellow, and blue fireworks with the booming sound and fucking everything. The second time was no exception. But it’s normal, he thinks. You can lust over someone you basically hate. Well, hate is a strong word. He doesn’t want to kill the guy; he has a profound dislike for him. But he can admit he has a body to die for. He had slept with people for less, so.

When he steps out of the bathroom, and ready to go out again, he passes Talia’s and Leo’s bedroom. The door is ajar, but he can quickly see a family picture hanging on a wall. He slows his paces and stops in front of the bedroom. He knows he shouldn’t go inside; shouldn’t snoop around, even if it’s just to look at a family picture, but he’s curious by nature.

When he enters, making sure no one is around, he notes that this bedroom is definitely the master bedroom; larger than Derek’s old bedroom and it faces the backward. Stiles can faintly hear the music and people’s muffled voices and laughter. A family portrait hangs on the wall and now that Stiles is in the room, he can fully see in on display; the Hale children are younger. Laura looks like she just graduated high school, with Derek, who was skinnier back than and smaller and Cora, who was probably in middle school.

The picture makes Stiles smiles. He shakes his head slightly as he makes his way out of the bedroom, but before he can go, something shiny caught his eye. He turns around and on the dark brown oak furniture, there’s a box spilling out jewelleries. Stiles almost don’t go there, but he goes anyways. He’s like entranced by what he sees. It’s not just cheap jewelleries from Walmart. He knows these brands; Tiffany, Cartier, Mikimoto… you name it, it’s there. Stiles knows it because of how many times he stole it from unsuspected women or men and knows their values. One of these necklaces can pay his rent for at least four months!

With shaky hands, he lightly touches a pearl necklace and shallows thickly.

‘’No,’’ Stiles murmurs to himself as his hand forms a fist. ‘’You’re better than this. Talia is nice to you. You can’t do it,’’ he says, trying to overcome the urge to steal it, trying to be the better man.

In the end, as he firmly closes the bedroom room, empty-handed, he feels relief, and relaxed. He smiles, a spring in his step as he knows he did the right thing.

**-X-**

When Stiles reappears next to Derek, who was talking to one of Cora’s friends, gives Stiles a champagne flute. Surprised by the gesture, Stiles smiles at him gratefully and distractedly listen to the conversation for a few minutes, until his eyes wander off and sees a familiar face in the crowd; actually, two familiar faces.

An Asian young woman in a beautiful strapless baby blue dress is openly laughing with Cora and a tall, tan-skinned man with ruffled hair and a wide smile stands next to her, looking at the woman with adoration, an arm around her waist.

Stiles groans and without excusing himself, leaves Derek and his perplexed friend.

As Derek sees Stiles takes off without a word, his eyes are trained on him, even though he forces a smile as his friend keeps going on and on about his trip to Peru and how he smokes from a bong and wakes up two days later, naked, in a corn field with a llama looking at him.

Cora’s friends are weird, but they are entertaining. He politely excused himself when he was on a whole new topic, when he sees the tall guy he vaguely knows following Stiles near the barns.

He wanted to make sure Stiles is okay. Solely reason.

He stops behind some bushes, the darkness obscuring him. It’s far enough from the party.

‘’… you are doing here, anyways?’’ Stiles says.

‘’If you would have give a damn about me, you would know that Isaac is my friend. He invited me,’’ Scott says defensively. Stiles scoffs as he rolls his eyes. They stay silent for at least two minutes, both scrutinizing the other one. An outsider can say that Stiles is ignoring Scott as he paces, arms crossed. But Derek, even though he doesn’t know him for that long, he knows when Stiles is uncomfortable; he scrunches his nose and ruffle his head when he doesn’t know what to do, how to act.

Scott sighs deeply and looks at Stiles with something akin to sadness. ‘’Dad told me you were going to be there. I wasn’t going to spy on you, or anything… and I haven’t told Isaac about why you’re really here, either. Or that you and Derek are not really… together. I mean, dad only wanted…’’

‘’Stop calling him dad,’’ Stiles replies harshly. Scott’s cheeks reddened in anger, obviously an old issue they haven’t quite discuss. ‘’He’s not your father,’’ Stiles replies coldly. Scott looks at him in disbelief, like he’s been slapped. He laughs bitterly and looks Stiles up and down, his brown eye darkened in anger. Derek had seen Scott in the streets, more often than not with the pretty Asian with the blue dress, sometimes with other friends and he goes to the station from time to time. He’s always joyful and laughs loudly; people obviously love him. He only exchanged a few friendly words with him, but even then, he always felt at ease with the young man. He never saw him looking at someone like he does to Stiles. From what he had heard around town, Stiles and Scott were the best friends, the inoperable duo as they grew up. It seems not to be the case, anymore.

‘’He is since he married my mom,’’ Scott retorts and laughs humorlessly. ‘’Who are you to tell me what to do, Stiles? I’ve been more of a son to him than you’ve ever been in _years_ ’’ He says, face hardened. ‘’You may have come back to town, but you’re still a stranger.’’ Scott concludes.

When Stiles is about to reply, Scott waves his hand lazily, suddenly looking tired, drain. He turns around, ready to walk away to return to the festivities. ‘’I know you’re good to ruin everybody’s mood, Stiles, but not tonight. This is Cora’s and Isaac’s night, don’t screw this up because you’re damn selfish.’’

The darkness envelops his silhouette as he walks away.

‘’You know that eavesdropping is impolite,’’ Derek hears Stile says in his direction. Caught, Derek gets out of the bushes. Derek shrugs, unapologetic, but Stiles doesn’t seem angry, just defeat, somewhat sad, but a defiance Derek never seen before sparkles in his amber eyes.

‘’I just wanted to make sure you were alright. You seemed… distraught.’’

‘’Well, I’m sure you have met my… step-brother, by now,’’ Stiles says as he slumps on the ground, the damp grass forgotten as Stiles looks up at the sky. Derek mimics him, sitting crossed-legs next to him.

‘’I’ve met him. A couple of times.’’ Derek says in a light voice, trying to lighten the mood in any way he can.

He can nudge his shoulder and be nosy and asks _‘’What happened?’’_ but he’s sure that’s not what Stiles needs. Instead, he remains silent, giving Stiles the choice to talk, or to stay silent.

‘’In New York, I couldn’t see the stars,’’ Stiles absently says, looking at the dark sky, dotting with stars. ‘’All the smog and the shit in the sky…’’

‘’New York is still more exciting than Beacon Hills,’’ Derek says jokingly. Stiles chuckles, to Derek’s surprise.

‘’Sure, if you like to party, or get stoned. Or get lost,’’ he shrugs. ‘’Beacon is safer. Fresher. Cleaner,’’ he says with a small smile. Derek smiles back and gets back on his feet, giving his hand to Stiles.

‘’Come on. It’s a wedding, let’s get drunk.’’

Stiles nods approvingly, accepting Derek’s hand in his as they go back to the wedding who was still in full swing and for the first time, they joke around together and Derek openly laughs at a crude joke Stiles just made.

And getting drunk, they do. Alcohol floods their veins, music pumps their blood as they dance, they laugh, they loosen up. For Derek’s family and friends, they just seem like a couple having fun at a wedding with probably a happy ending at the end, like couples (and strangers) often do at weddings.

Have you ever heard of Wedding crashers?

‘’Look, look,’’ Stiles says, a few inches away from a still laughing Derek. He takes a lime from the bar, lick it and quickly drinks his shot, eyes squeezing shot. He laughs again as he coughs.

‘’Idiot,’’ Derek says, but smiles softly. Stiles sways on his feet, leaning on the bar.

‘’I’m so drunk,’’ he says. ‘’And so are you,’’ he laughs again for no particular reason.

‘’At least, I can stand on my feet,’’ Derek says. To demonstrate when he’s just said, he stands from his chair, but sway dangerously and almost hit the ground, but Stiles grips his shoulders.

‘’Yeah, you’re so fucking steady,’’

‘’Boys, boys, boys,’’ Cora says as she appears, beaming at them. Stiles tries to focus on her, but he sees two heads instead of one.

‘’There are fireworks on the other side of Pond Lake,’’ she says, excited. ‘’Dad and grandpa set it up for me!’’ she explains, almost jumping on his feet. ‘’Join us!’’

‘’We will,’’ Derek promises her, taking a hold of the bar counter so he can stop swaying. Now that they stopped focusing on each other, Derek realize that the tent hosting the reception is almost empty. The remaining guests must have go to the lake already and the few couples remaining are slow-dancing to a soft rendition of Dean Martin’s _Sway._

They tried to go see the fireworks, but in the end, it didn’t work. Stiles stumbles and as Derek tried to help Stiles, he fell on top of him. Buzzed by the alcohol, instead of separation, they stayed still, breathing in sync, until Stiles pressed his lips on Derek’s. What was supposed to only be a soft kiss for unknown reason, turns heated.

Lips ravaging every spot they can find in the darkness, and hands touching everywhere, they finally made it to the house. Empty and dark, the house has an eerie look to it, but in the heat of the moment, Stiles can’t care less. Almost blindingly and the alcohol flooding in their veins and the promise of hot flesh and pleasure, they make it up the stairs.

‘’Cora-Cora will be pissed at us if we miss the fire-the fire-mm!’’ Stiles says and finishes in a moan as Derek forcefully pins him to his bedroom’s door, kissing a trail at Stiles’ neck.

‘’Shut up, Stiles. Don’t talk about my sister right now,’’

‘’Right, right,’’ Stiles agrees. ‘’Talking about fa-family, total bone killer,’’

Stiles smirks as he takes off his tuxedo, now shirtless and Derek kisses his bare skin, going down, down, down, until his lips reach his navel. He throws his head back and moans as Derek’s tongue circle his bellybutton, but it’s his turn to have the control. There’s one thing he’s good at, and it’s sex and he’s always in control. His partners always see something new with him, they always leave satisfied. You can call him a power bottom all you want, but he knows what he wants, and he likes to get it by himself. He takes a good grip on Derek’s hair, yanking his head. He licks his lips and bites his button lip, making sure to look as alluring as possible. He saunters to the bed, and in two seconds, they are both naked. Stiles got Derek pins to the bed, and kisses his neck, his sternum, his nipples, his stomach, until he reaches Derek’s penis. He never once looks away from Derek’s flaming gaze.

The moonlight is the only light to provide some clarity into the room.

Derek throws his head back as Stiles’ lips touch his penis for the first time, getting longer and ticker with every suction and pull of his wrist.

After that, it’s just a blur for Derek. He remembers Stiles taking control; he remembers it was rough, quick, but so fucking good. He remembers the feeling of him penetrating Stiles; the choked sob Stiles lets out as he slowly slides up and down his length. He remembers Stiles pinning his hands above his head as he rides him, his hips undulating to the rhythm of their skins slapping together.

He remembers the moonlight illuminating Stiles’ naked shape, and how much skinnier, but toned he is now that he’s completely bare of clothing and his moles travel all over his body. He also sees all of his tattoo; four, in total. One at the wrist, one on his bicep, the other one on his left side, near his belly, and the other one on his thigh. He can’t really see the shapes, but he never fucked a tattooed person, before.

He vividly remembers their last position. Missionary style and even with a position like that, where he’s supposed to have the upper-hand with Stiles beneath him, it’s still the younger man who was in charge.

He remembers it was like a dream, except, it was not. He remembers it being fun, throwing insults at each other; it was easy and fun. And when it was done and Derek was on the verge of sleeping, he vaguely thought that this would change things in the morning, that they would be awkward, that Stiles would surely be awkward.

Oddly enough, it wasn’t awkward. Stiles is nonchalant as he wakes up in the morning, lazily watching Derek getting dressed. The older man holds his breath, waiting for something, anything. Some kind of regret, or freaking out. He’s not going to pretend that something is going to happen and it was more than a fuck, but he hoped that Stiles wasn’t going to freak out or that it was going to be awkward, like the standard one night stands usually are.

But instead of a ‘’OMG what the hell happened?!’’ or a apprehensive ‘’Hi?’’, Stiles stretches, showing off his naked body in pure daylight, no shame whatsoever. He sleepily looks at Derek and a lazy smile graces his lips.

‘’You got a fucking great cock, there,’’

And that was that. No awkwardness. No regrets. Stiles talks to him like normal, if the occasional insult is anything to go by, but at least, on their last day here, they are not butting heads like they did two weeks ago.

Are they friends? Probably not. Are they friendly? Getting there. But it’s still a difference that Derek notices between them. Maybe a slight mutual respect.

And a common agreement that they know how to fuck.

They all slept in, with a few guests that couldn’t get an hotel. When it’s time to go, Talia gave Stiles a few dishes, telling him that a college student shouldn’t have to pay for all his food. She’s almost teary eyed, and he’s almost teary-eyed because with that much food, he can last a while for not paying for his own food. Leo and Talia make him promise to come back very soon and Cora and Laura hug him tightly.

They stay silent for the ride, because Stiles keeps staring at the food. Before they arrive in Beacon Hills, Derek starts talking. ‘’Don’t stare to long, you’ll get a hole in the Tupperware,’’ he comments lightly. Stiles looks at him and attempts to smile.

‘’It’s nice to have free food,’’ he murmurs. ‘’I’ll drop these to the station when I finish,’’ Stiles says, gesturing to the Tupperware fill with food. ‘’You’ll say thanks to your mom again,’’

‘’It’s no big deal,’’ Derek shrugs. ‘’She cooks for everybody. It’s her way to show you she appreciates you,’’

‘’It’s a big deal for me,’’ he says. ‘’Tell her thanks,’’ Derek looks at him, perplexed, but he nods.

‘’I will,’’ he says and they stay silent, until Derek speaks again once they go to Beacon Hills. ‘’Where do you live?’’

‘’Drop me to the station, it’s fine. I’ll walk,’’

‘’Nonsense,’’ Derek replies as he drives slowly on the slippery highway, as the rain falls rapidly. ‘’You’ll get soaked to the bone,’’

‘’I’m fine,’’ Stiles argues. When Derek doesn’t budge, Stiles deflates. ‘’Fine. On Melrose street.’’

‘’Is that… ‘’

‘’Yeah, on the wrong side of the street,’’

Derek was going to say if it was the first street on the other side of McDonald bridge, but Stiles is actually right. There’s always a few cops around this part of night during the night. Beacon Hills is just like any other city, or town. There’s the rich, middle-class where the sheriff and Derek live, and the poor side. Melrose is on the poor side and even though big criminal cases don’t happen like they happened when Derek was working in San Francisco, Derek was more often than not on call on that side of town.

The car stops at an apartment building where Derek can actually see a few broken windows. ‘’Thanks for the ride,’’ Stiles says almost too quickly, like he’s eager to get out of the car.

‘’Hey Stiles-‘’ he says when Stiles is ready to walk out of the car and possibly out of his life for good. When he turns around, Derek doesn’t know why he called his name. He still wants to talk to him, thanking him for last night? Even to his own ears, that sounds lame and it’s only what virgins would say.

When the silence is too long, Stiles smirks, all easy and teasing. Like last night. ‘’If you’re bored and you wanna fuck again, Beacon Hills is small. I’m sure you can find me, deputy,’’

He gets out of the car, running towards his apartment building, leaving a dumfounded Derek alone in his car, the rain heavily hitting his Camaro, but he had the stupidest smile on his face.

-X-

 

Derek decides to go to the wrong side of the track, as Stiles likes to call it, to see the younger at his workplace. An entire month had passed since the wedding, and let’s just say that their one-night stand was not a one-night stand. A couple of days after the wedding, Stiles called him and they spend every minute from each other’s company in Derek’s bedroom and every time, it’s always as explosive as the first time. They still don’t share a lot; actually, their meet ups consist of sexual relations. When they talk, and joke around before and after the act, sweaty and tangled in sheets, it’s always superficial. Then, Stiles gets up, gets dressed, and leaves with a sly smirk and a promise to see him later.

It’s been a month. A month of complete debauchery and the most erotic moment of Derek’s life. He’s not joking. It’s just fooling around, and they still can’t stand each other most of the times, and they still insult each other, even in bed. But it’s their rhythm and Derek will be happy to continue doing what they have going on, until Stiles wants to stop. That’s why he’s dreading the conversation he’s about to have with him.

As he enters the coffeehouse Stiles is working at, he frowns. It’s in the middle of the day, and the place should be filled with customers who just finished working, or students hanging out after school. At least, it’s always like that to his coffeehouse two blocks from the station. Instead, he sees Robbie, the homeless guy that everybody knows, but nobody really knows. He’s asleep on a bench next to the window. The place smells like fresh coffee and freshly baked pastries, though.

He sees Stiles at the counter, leaning against the glass where the pastries are displayed, playing on his phone.

‘’You work really hard,’’ Derek says dryly. Stiles nonchalantly looks up like he’s not surprised to see Derek in front of him, nor is he in a hurry to hide his phone. He scoffs.

‘’This place is dead, anyways. This place will be closing in no time and the boss can’t give two fucks anyways,’’ he replies as he pockets his phone.

‘’Then why are you working here?’’ Derek asks, genuinely interested. Since they began their whole thing a month ago, Stiles easily open up. Not about deep things, but when Derek tries to speak to him, or asks him questions, he’s easier to speak to.

‘’The only job that would hire me,’’ he shrugs. ‘’Besides, it’s Beacon Hills. It’s not like it’s crawling with job opportunities.’’

‘’You could have worked at the station,’’

‘’Yeah, and be my dad’s charity case? No, thank you,’’ he responds easily, but Derek notices how tense he suddenly became. ‘’Want coffee? This place could be infested of cockroaches, but the coffee is awesome,’’ Derek nods in thanks and he subtly looks around.

‘’It’s not crawling with customers,’’ he notes when Stiles turns his back on him to make the coffee.

‘’People around here prefer beer and booze,’’ he only says. That’s true; Beacon Hills is no different then any other town, or city. There’s a rich class, like Lydia used to live before his father leaves her and her mom to go screwing a girl only 5 years older than Lydia, a middle-class where Derek and the Sheriff lives and the poorer side, where the brown apartment buildings look sad and where Derek’s deputy’s car’s tires were slashed twice.

‘’So, what brings you here?’’ Stiles asks as he hands him the coffee. Black. He only knows what’s his favorite coffee because he was around once in the morning when he made it. Only reason. ‘’We usually text each other,’’ he says as he eyed the pathetic sight of Robbie, the homeless guy in the corner. He leans against the counter and gives Derek a small smile. ‘’Do you want a booty call here? I had sex in public, once, in Central Park. It was wild,’’ he says, too excited about the idea. Derek shallows hard at the idea. ‘’Robbie won’t wake up, but the _thrill_ , you know?’’

‘’I-you-‘’ Derek stutters, at a loss for words, until his brain function properly again. ‘’I-no, god, no! That’s not what I was thinking,’’ he says, feeling himself blush. And like usual, it doesn’t seem to faze Stiles as he just talked about sex so openly.

‘’Your loss,’’ he shrugs, wiping the counter, even though it was clean.

‘’I just have a favor to ask you,’’ he says, straight to the point. Interest picked, Stiles fix his doe eyes on Derek and he falters a little. When he doesn’t say anything, Stiles arches an eyebrow.

‘’Do tell, by all means,’’ he says. ‘’The cat’s got your tongue?’’

Derek rolls his eyes. ‘’Shut up and listen to me,’’

‘’I would, if you decide to actually fucking speak,’’

‘’I need another date with you,’’ Derek says in a rush.

Stiles stops wiping the counter and glares at him when realization hits him ‘’Tell me you didn’t,’’ he warns in a hard voice. ‘’Tell me you officially broke us up with your family,’’

Derek faintly shakes his head. ‘’I didn’t,’’

Stiles growls loudly and glares even harder at Derek. ‘’What were you waiting for?’’ he nearly yells. ‘’You were supposed to tell your family that we broke up! I even left you the luxury to paint me as a cheater, or an asshole or whatever! That was the deal!’’

‘’I couldn’t, okay?’’ Derek says, frowning at him. ‘’I- just- every time I tried to tell them it was over; I panic because they always tell me how much they love you!’’ Stiles’ face softens slightly; the anger slowly leaves his body.

‘’But you have to tell them,’’ he says gently. ‘’It can’t go on forever,’’ he murmurs the last part, not looking at Derek as he continues wiping the counter, this time more forcefully.

‘’Then, if it can’t go on forever,’’ he says as he puts his hand on Stiles to stop him from wiping. ‘’Then, what are we doing?’’

Stiles forces a laugh, untangling his hand from Derek as he turns his back to put the cloth in the sink. ‘’Don’t go fucking sentimental on me, deputy. It’s just fucking and you know it.’’

Derek doesn’t know why, or how, or when it starts, but when he said it, it stings. He takes a step forwards, puts in elbows on the counter and looks up at Stiles, who still has his back turned. ‘’One date. I only ask for one date.’’

‘’Why?’’ Stiles scoffs. ‘’So that we can just pretend, and that your family can love me more and it will just make it harder for you to fake break up with me?’’

‘’We have this whole charity and our horses do competition.’’ He says, almost pleading. ‘’It’s for breast cancer,’’ he adds, hoping that would make him change his mind.

‘’If you fucking think that because it’s for a good cause will make me change my mind,’’ Stiles says as he turns around. ‘’I’m speed dialing your sister right now,’’

‘’You have my sister on speed dial?’’

‘’Your two sisters, yes. And Isaac,’’ Stiles automatically responds. Derek crosses his bulging arms over his chest.

‘’You like them,’’

‘’I never said I didn’t like them. But what we have is just a lie, Derek. Stop pretending we are anything more,’’ he says forcefully, a frown creasing his forehead.

A silence follows. The only sound is the brewing of the coffee machine, and the rain drops heavily dropping on the large windows. After a second too long, Derek’s green eyes leave Stiles’ brown ones as he steps back.

‘’Fine. It’s fine. It was stupid, anyways. You’re right. All we have is a lie,’’

He leaves the coffeehouse without turning back to see Stiles’ face, hurrying through the rain to his patrol car. As he sits in hi car, ready to leave, he hears someone tapping his window. Stiles is standing there, drenched from head to toe, frowning at him. Derek has a bemused smile.

‘’Fine, one date,’’ Stiles hurriedly says, cursing the bad weather as he shields his eyes from the rain.

‘’You could have said it through a text,’’ Derek replies, arching an eyebrow.

‘’Shut up,’’ Stiles leaves him and hurry back to the restaurant. Derek doesn’t leave just yet; he sees Stiles ruffles his wet hair, leaning against the counter like he had found him a few minutes ago. He’s playing a mindless game on his cellphone- he knows, because every time he plays something on his phone, his tongue is sticking out. He smiles softly as he watches him, until Parrish calls him back to the station.

- **X-**

Stiles drinks a scorching black coffee at a seemingly busy coffee shop – the total opposite of the coffeehouse he’s been working at. He’s nervous, his hands shaking slightly. Anybody who would tall him he’s being nervous, he would deny it, then punch them. But it’s true, he’s nervous.

A couple of days after Derek came to his workplace, announced, demanding another date of him -seriously, this guy have never heard of the word no-, his father had called him and asked if they can take a coffee, sometimes.

And here he is. To be honest, he didn’t sleep last night. Too many thoughts, too many what ifs, too many anything to sleep. Since he came back in Beacon Hills, he hadn’t face his father and talk to him face to face. Their relationship is too broken, he thought. He just couldn’t figure out why he wanted to see him, though.

Noah Stilinski enters the coffee shop, nodding to the baristas and to the people he knows. Being the Sheriff in the small town gets you to some kind of superstar, Stiles knows it the hard way. He looks older, his once sparkling blue eyes now dull and grey with time and supposedly stress. He hasn’t noticed, before. When he was angry, when he was sad, when he was blinded by everything going wrong in his life.

He still has a shitty life, and issues, and a crappy apartment, but something had changed.

When his father got his coffee, he makes a beeline to Stiles and the lines around his eyes and his frown show Stiles that he, also, was dreading this thing.

He sits before Stiles and gives him a tight smile. ‘’Thank you, for meeting me,’’ the Sheriff says, this time, smiling warmly at his son. Stiles merely shrugs and sips his coffee just to have something to do, not even flinching by the hot liquid. He waits, and waits, analysing his father wetting his lips, finding the words.

It wasn’t always like that, him and his father. Back in the day, when Stiles still loved school, loved to learn and loved cooking and baking with his mother. Back in the day when his joy in life was to spend his days at the station and making his dad do the siren when he was in the patrol car. It only took him pouting and batting his big brown eyes for his father to cave. It was when it was him and his father, inseparable. It was when Stiles and Scott used to be best friends.

Now though, all grown up, it feels like they are two strangers. A young man, still angry at the world, and an older man, whom Stiles had hurt deeply. He knows that much.

‘’What do you want?’’ Stiles blurts, because it always felt like that for years. People just wants. And they take.

Noah looks surprised, then contrite. He rubs his forehead- an habit he has when he’s nervous.

‘’I just wanted to see my son,’’ he says and he looks sincere. Stiles gulps and looks elsewhere, because yes, Noah tried to call him multiple times and even went to his apartment since he came back in Beacon Hills a couple of months ago, but every time, Stiles said no. As many times as he convinced himself he didn’t come back for his dad, he still insists on not being alone with his father. It just didn’t work out in New-York, Beacon Hills is less expensive and still familiar to Stiles, hence him coming back to town. He always finds excuses to refuse, but today, something pulled him to accept.

‘’I had nothing to do today, so,’’ Stiles murmurs, shrugging. Noah exhales deeply and Stiles recognize this face as exasperation, but Stiles won’t cave. He’s still frozen.

He lets the silence settles between them; uncomfortable silence as Stiles absently pick the crumps of his chocolate chips muffin.

‘’Derek told me you’ve been hanging out a lot,’’ Noah says brightly to lighten the mood. ‘’It’s good, you know. That you have friends. He’s a good man,’’ Stiles scoffs, and laughs, but there was nothing cute or adorable about that laugh. ‘’What did I say?’’ Noah asks, an uncomfortable smirk forming on his lips, taking off guard by his stoic son suddenly laughing. He hasn’t heard the sound in years.

‘’Derek and I have been hanging out alright,’’ he rolls his eyes as he stops laughing. ‘’If you call fucking hanging out, then yeah,’’ he smiles as he sees the tips of his father’s ears turning red in embarrassment.

‘’What you do, or Derek does, in your free time, don’t concern me,’’ he says as he coughs uncomfortably. Before the silence can settle again between them, Noah speaks again. ‘’So, tell me about your life!’’ he exclaims, a little too much excitement in his voice.

‘’There’s not much to tell,’’ Stiles says reluctantly. ‘’Still works at Beanie’s,’’ The sheriff looks at him and he moves his hand, like he wants to hold Stiles’ hand on badly. He smiles softly instead.

‘’I- you weren’t brought in the station in over a month. I take it you’re being good?’’ he asks hesitantly. Stiles rolls his eyes; his father was always incapable of being blunt.

‘’If you want to know if I stole anything, no, I’ve been a good boy,’’ he says in a patronizing tone. He notices the breath of relief the sheriff lets out.

‘’Good, good. That’s- yeah, that’s good.’’ Stiles plays with the lid of his coffee cup, a question lingering in his mind. He had this question in over a month. It’s probably stupid, and it doesn’t matter, but he needs to know.

‘’Why did you make this deal?’’ he asks, raising his eyes to meet his dad’s. The sheriff, mouth full of coffee, shallow and asks: ‘’What?’’

‘’Why did you make this deal?’’ he repeats. ‘’Why did you make me go to this wedding in the first place?’’ there was not heat behind it, because quite frankly, he had fun there. And to be honest, it led to the best sex he ever had.

The sheriff sighs deeply and he suddenly looks older. ‘’Stiles, I couldn’t bend the rules for you, anymore. People started to talk. But… even though life separated us, you’re still my son, and I don’t wish to give you a criminal record. It can ruin your life, Stiles.’’ He says, stressing his words to get his point across. ‘’Derek told me about the up coming wedding and how much his family wanted him to have someone in his life. He even told me, jokingly, that he was ready to fake a date just to get his family off his back.’’ He chuckles, clearly remembering the day the deputy told him that. He sobers up. ‘’It just fits; you know? I wanted- I wanted you to get out a little. It was nothing, just two weeks, but I thought you going to the ranch would do you some good.’’ He concludes. ‘’And I notice the good it did to you, Stiles. I couldn’t know that you were going to be a perfect little angel, but I had hoped that a change of scenery would do you some good. And it did, son,’’

‘’How do you know?’’ Stiles asks rather harshly. Noah just shrugs and arches an eyebrow at him.

‘’Derek tells me things. How you seem to open up, how you haven’t steal anything in a while,’’

‘’Wow, geez, what don’t you write a book with Derek, then?’’ Stiles says sarcastically. ‘’You seem to just tell each other just fucking everything,’’ he says, dryly. ‘’Just like two fucking housewives from the fifties.’’

‘’Stiles,’’ Noah sighs, suddenly tired of the distance created years ago between his son and him. ‘’Listen, I know we’ve been at odds, but I’m trying here. Why do you keep pushing me away?’’

Stiles looks away and his eyes land on a man in his thirties with a little boy on his lap not far from their table. The little boy is giggling, looking up at his father in admiration and something twist, and something ugly, punches his stomach.

‘’It was a bad idea,’’ he suddenly says, suddenly standing up and his chair scrapes the floor. ‘’I shouldn’t have come here,’’

‘’Stiles,’’ the sheriff tries to grab his son’s wrist to make him stay, but he’s already out of the door, out of his life, once again.

**-X-**

Later that night, Stiles shows up at Derek’s place. As soon as the older man opens the door, Stiles smashes their lips together in an hungry kiss. Derek doesn’t hesitate: he deepens the kiss as he leads Stiles inside his home.

‘’You-‘’ Derek tries to say as he trails kisses along Stiles’ neck. ‘’You usually call first,’’

‘’I-I felt like-‘’ Stiles tries to say between a moan, caressing Derek’s member through his jeans. ‘’I felt like being spontaneous,’’

‘’Good call,’’ Derek murmurs as he lifts Stiles, putting his hands beneath his thighs and walk inside his bedroom. Stiles knows his apartment by heart, now. He doesn’t question Stiles’ red rimmed eyes, or the slight smell of alcohol on his breath. It’s not his place to say anything. Stiles has his own life, and Derek only was the person to get off with.

Instead of talking and asking questions that would be ultimately ignored, Derek don’t lose any time. After a month of fucking, they know each other’s bodies. After a few minutes of frantic moans and failing limbs, Derek is pushing, the red and glistering head of his penis disappearing in the soft warmth of Stiles’ body. He looks down as his member disappear, and reappear, and every time, Stiles, beneath him, lets out soft, needy sounds that make Derek’s head spin.

When it’s over, they are tangled in the soft sheets, sweaty, but content. Derek dares to tighten his hold on Stiles just a little longer, because he knows that Stiles will go home soon. He always does. Instead of that happening, Stiles murmurs: ‘’If you don’t mind, I’m going to stay the night.’’ Then, he drifts off to sleep.

Derek, surprised, smiled softly at the boy in his arms, happy to fall asleep, if it means to see Stiles’ face in the morning.

And yes, he realises in that moment he’s too far gone on the boy.

But he doesn’t care.

A thud wales Derek up the next morning. He arches his back, stretches his arms over his head, eyes still heavy with sleep. A small crack of light comes through his curtains, and he knows it’s going to be a sunny, and probably hot, day. He muffles a yawn, content of his sleep.

As he opens his eyes, he notices that Stiles is gone. He sighs deeply, trying not to be too disappointed. He never stayed in the morning, why would it be different now? At first, it didn’t bother him. Why would he be bothered? They fucked, they passed the time and that was that. But after a few weeks, he yearns for his body against his, for his dirty jokes and his rudeness. He longs for him to stay, just for the morning at least.

He hears another thud and now, he’s fully awake and he frowns. It comes from his kitchen. Before he can really investigate, Stiles comes running on light feet and jumps on the bed, startling Derek but at the sihjt of him, smiling down at him, he relaxes. He _stayed._

‘’Hey,’’ Derek croaks, trying not to appear too overjoyed.

‘’Hey yourself,’’ Stiles replies as he straggles Derek and in that moment, with Stiles only in his back boxer briefs, that Derek realizes that he’s still fully naked, his used condom discarded somewhere near the bed.

‘’I thought you’d disappear,’’ Derek asks. Stiles arches an eyebrow, smirking. ‘’I’m glad you didn’t,’’ he adds. Derek didn’t notice before, but in Stiles’ hand, there was a tube of pre-made Pillsbury chocolate chips cookie dough. He groans loudly as he throws his head on the pillow, but his hands are naturally placed on Stiles’ waist.

‘’You bought it for me?’’ Stiles asks and grinds his hips unto Derek’s. The older man groans, but this time, in pleasure.

‘’Don’t flatter yourself,’’ he says after the wave of pleasure wore off. Stiles scoffs as he opens the tube.

‘’As if you’d cook refrigerated cookies.’’ Stiles rolls his eyes. ‘’I know what you eat. You only fucking eat Special K or brown bread. Boring. You’re boring,’’

‘’Being healthy is not boring,’’ he says as Stiles takes a big bite of the dough above him. ‘’And you’re supposed to bake that shit first!’’ Derek says, annoyed, but not really. He discovered a long time ago that all of Stiles’ mannerisms are quite endearing. Stiles ignores him and he takes another bite.

‘’Well, if being boring while eating a bowl of Special K, with no sugar to spice things up, may I add, gives you that body,’’ he says as he trails a hand over his abs and they naturally contract to the cold contact of his hand, ‘’I absolutely don’t mind,’’ he says with a chuckle. ‘’But admit it; you bought it for me,’’ he says again, and grinds his hips against Derek’s once again. ‘’Admit it,’’ he murmurs as he comes forward, kissing Derek. He tastes of cookie dough and coffee and chocolate, and he just _can’t._ Stiles steps back, a victorious smile in place as he rotates his hips slowly.

‘’Okay, okay,’’ Derek says breathlessly. ‘’Fine! I did.’’ Derek confesses, but right now, he doesn’t care if he lost whatever games Stiles was playing with him. His penis hardens and it dampened Stiles’ boxers, but he doesn’t seem to care.

Stiles smiles mischievously. ‘’Eat it,’’ he says.

‘’No,’’ Derek retorts, disgusted. ‘’I won’t eat that shit,’’

‘’Come on, Derek. Just one bite!’’

‘’Fuck, no,’’ He closes his lips firmly, and Stiles seems to get the message, but he shrugs.

‘’Alright. Okay,’’ he places the tube of cookie dough on the nightstand, and takes off his boxer briefs. He turns to face Derek and smirks. ‘’I didn’t stay in the morning just for the small talk,’’ he stays as he stokes Derek’s penis. ‘’You want morning sex?’’ Derek nods rapidly as Stiles’ lips touch his member and lick a long stride.

‘’Good. Because I’m about to ride you,’’

After the sex, they lay on the bed, breathless. The sheets only cover their bottoms and their chests heave, their veins pumping with blood, and their hearts beating fast and alive.

Stiles looks at the ceiling, laughing softly. ‘’I haven’t had morning sex in a long time,’’ he confesses.

Derek scoffs at that and nods in agreement. ‘’The last time was with Jennifer,’’ he doesn’t know why he said that, why he shared that information with Stiles. It just seems right, and saying it out loud doesn’t hurt as much. Thinking about Jennifer now doesn’t hurt as much as before. ‘’I haven’t think about her in such a long time…’’ he realizes, and he stops laughing, suddenly deep in thoughts. He looks at the ceiling, just like Stiles does, but he doesn’t really see it. ‘’I just- I gave everything to her,’’ he says in a whisper, and he doesn’t know why, but it’s like a dam has broken, and he spills his guts. ‘’I thought she was the one, you know?’’ he laughs humorlessly. ‘’I bought a ring and everything. My family were over the moon. And after everything…’’ he gulps, vividly remembering her and his best friend on _their_ bed, in _their_ bedroom, in _their_ apartment in San Francisco, both sweaty and naked, with her legs wrapped around his waist, moving in tandem faster and faster, moaning…

He closes his eyes and breathe deeply. He hasn’t talked to his friend since then. Apparently, he moved to Chicago. And Jennifer… no matter how many times she begged him to take her back, he didn’t cave. And he’s damn proud of it.

He flinches slightly as he feels Stiles’ cold hand take his hand. ‘’She was a bitch. A cold-hearted bitch. If I were you, I’d take a hot curling iron and shove it in her pussy to see how much she likes a good dicking.  I mean, I don’t fucking care if you fuck someone else, as long as you don’t do it behind my back. Honesty is key.’’ Stiles declares seriously, but in good Stiles’ fashion and his rudeness, it made Derek laughs, tears welling in his eyes. ‘’Feelin’ better?’’ Stiles asks, looking sideways at him with a crooked smile.

‘’Yeah,’’ Derek says after he regains some control over his breathing. ‘’Yeah, god. Sorry about that. Now I feel lime I’m boring, dumping all of this on you,’’

‘’You were boring way before that,’’ Stiles says as he lightly pushes Derek’s shoulder with his.

After that, there’s a silent in the room. No once speaks, but it’s not uncomfortable, until Derek remembers something.

‘’Hey… are you alright?’’ he asks and Stiles turns his head in his direction, arching an eyebrow in question. ‘’I mean, yesterday… your eyes were red. And you heavily smelled alcohol. Maybe it’s not my place to ask, but… are you okay?’’

‘’Everything’s peachy,’’ Stiles says automatically, but his smile falters. He sits up unto the bed, the sheets pooling around his waist. Derek leans against the headboard. ‘’I saw my dad yesterday. And- it’s just- everything is fucked,’’ he says, frustrated.

‘’Your dad loves you,’’

‘’I know he fucking does, that’s not the problem!’’ Stiles says, agitated. ‘’I can’t look him in the eyes, anymore,’’ he admits. He toys with the sheets to have something to do with his hands.

‘’What happened to you… to get this life?’’ Stiles scoffs and continues playing with the sheets.

‘’Who are you, my fucking shrink again?’’ he asks defensively, but by this time, Derek knows it’s his defensive mechanic. He waits, until Stiles speaks again. 

‘’There’s nothing much to tell, really. I was a good kid, me and Scott were inseparable, good grades… then around my junior year, I met these kids in school. I changed the crowd, I left Scott behind… these kids were bad news, really. They got me hooked on drugs, sex and stealing. At first it was fun, something to pass the time in this town. Then I flunked all of my classes. During senior year, it was bad. My dad tried to help me see straight again, but what was important to me was my friends and the bad shit we were doing. It’s in my senior year that my dad and Melissa started seeing each other, but at that point, I didn’t even care. These guys- they wanted to drop out of school, and go to New York. Among this crowd, there was a guy whom I slept with, he was good at hacking computers. His name was Danny. He got me to fraud my dad. I stole 10 000 $ that he had in a saving account. Then we left. Stayed a couple of years in NYC, getting high, partying… just to forget that the real world existed. After a while, these… friends began to go somewhere else. One ODed, though. It’s when I was sitting on the ground in an alley, giving a blow job to a total stranger for cash that it hits me, that I really missed home and I couldn’t live through this fog any longer.’’

He takes a shaky breath, then continue. ‘’When I came back, I just- I really want to see my dad. The house was the same, but when I got closer and saw through the window a table full of food, with my dad, Melissa, Scott and his girlfriend, all laughing, it made me realize that I missed out on so much. I wasn’t a part of my dad’s life, anymore. And I only brought disappointment and pain to dad. I tried to make it work, but every time I see him looking at me with this look, anger overcome all feelings and I just feel angry that he has a new family, angry at Scott for being a good son and being there for my dad when I wasn’t. But I know I’m the only one to blame. I can’t be angry at anyone but me.’’

A single tear made his way down his cheek, but he wipes it. ‘’Everybody makes mistakes, Stiles.’’ Stiles scoffs at that, but Derek continues. ‘’Noah talks to me about you a lot.’’ He says sincerely and it was true. ‘’He just wishes you’d come to him, talk to him. He misses you,’’

‘’I just feel horrible. Every time we speak, I lash out.’’ He says with a trembling voice.

Derek moves to come closer to Stiles. He’s behind the younger man, tracing the tattoo he has on his side lightly. Stiles shudders at the gentle touch. ‘’It takes time to heal old wounds.’’ He whispers. ‘’It takes time,’’ he concludes as he lightly kisses Stiles’ left shoulder. There was nothing sexual, or remotely sensual about the kiss, but Stiles’ breath hitch. Derek repeats the kiss, this time between his shoulder blades. Stiles’ breath becomes erratic as Derek repeats the kiss again and again and again, and peppered small kisses on his neck. He turns his head to catch Derek’s lips in a heated kiss, Derek’s hands roaming Stiles’ creamy chest, stomach and belly and now the sheets are now gone as Stiles sits on his knees, Derek still behind him. Derek hardens behind him and Stiles is still open and ready from earlier, so Derek slides easily inside, capturing Stiles’ mouth in a kiss, muffling his cry of surprise and pleasure. Derek’s hand stroke Stiles’ penis with the same rhythm as his thrusts, and this time, he had control. And this time, nothing was quick, or dirty and filthy about it like all the other times. This time, it’s slow, appreciating every reaction, every thrust, every stroke…

After a couple of minutes, they switch position and now Stiles is beneath him, moaning softly as Derek enter him, peppering kisses all over his neck and collarbones. It takes a long time for them to reach their climax, neither of them wanted it to end just yet. They are going slow, sometimes stopping mid thrust to catch their breath and just kissing. They were in no rush. Then, when Stiles’ sperm covers their bellies and Derek stills inside of him, his cock pushing long spurts of come, Stiles arching his back in satisfaction, Stiles hums in contentment, eyes closed.

‘’Well, shit,’’ he says, breathlessly, and numb. Derek lays next to him, humming in agreement, his whole body in firer and he loves it. ‘’I think we just made love,’’ he declares. Derek thinks he’s going to get dressed and leave, but instead, he chuckles and comes closer to Derek.

Derek embraces him from behind, and it was just a couple of minutes later that Stiles says: ‘’I’ve never made love before,’’ Derek only tightens his grip to show him his appreciation that he lets him do it to him and how much it means to him.

Stiles spends the whole day with him. They didn’t stray too far from the bed. They binged watched Netflix and they soon got hooked on The 100, because the storylines are so good and from Stiles’ point of view, Bellamy and Octavia are badasses and Raven deserves good things. Between two episodes, they have sex, and they order junk foods. They also talk about everything and nothing and Derek laughs at Stiles’ lewd remarks and dirty jokes. Overall, it was a great day and probably the best day Derek ever had with someone.

When Stiles is ready to leave, he leans over and plant a kiss on Derek’s cheek. ‘’Thanks,’’ he says to a surprised Derek. ‘’For listening to me.’’ He adds. ‘’As sad and pathetic as it sounds, I just felt so lonely before I met you,’’ he admits. Before Derek can say anything, Stiles leaves.

And Derek smiles.

**-X-**

Derek works and pulls a double shift to cover for Jordan because he was sick, so he didn’t have the time to go, have the courage and actually see Stiles. He fights and argue with himself whether or not go see him, just to see him. They had a great time the other day; not because they end up having a sex marathon, but because for the very first time, they talked. They had conversations, and they binged watch a TV show together. That’s a work in progress, right there, and it may be nothing for Stiles. The younger man was obviously sad, lonely and frustrated by his conversation with his father, so Derek must have been a consolation prize, but all in all, he still appreciated this tender moment shared between them and he hopes that Stiles feels the same.

Friday night comes around and Derek is in front of Stiles’ door, with Chinese takeout. He had never been inside Stiles’ place. He knocks, and waits. He hears feet approaching the door and suddenly, Stiles is here, and surprisingly -or is it? - he’s smiling. Not a forced smile, but a friendly one.

‘’Hey,’’ Derek greets with a smile of his own.

‘’Hey yourself,’’ Stiles says as he stands in front of him, eyes sparkling.

‘’I… bought Chinese?’’ Stiles fixes the brown bag and exaggeratedly smells it and hums in contentment.

‘’Good thinking,’’ he says. ‘’I’m fucking starved. Come on in,’’ Derek steps inside and takes everything in. The apartment is tiny, it’s more like a studio, but it’s cozy and Stiles really has a flare with decoration, because it’s tastefully decorated and really _Stiles._ He doesn’t know why Stiles always felt hesitant to show his place, because his home is cool.  

‘’Sorry for the hot mess,’’ Stiles says, but he looks unapologetic. Derek looks around, and it still looks fairly neat, with the exception of some dirty dishes in the sink in the kitchenette. He takes the bags from Derek’s hands and eagerly opens the plastic lids and a big smile appear on his face.

‘’Oh my god, yes! General Tso’s chicken, my favorite!’’ he exclaims as he sits on the couch, cross-legged. Derek follows him, balancing his pot stickers and fried rice on his lap.

‘’Just a lucky guess,’’ Derek shrugs and smiles as Stiles devours his dish, not even thinking about how he knew about his favorite Chinese food.

‘’How’d you know?’’ Stiles finally asks, with a mouthful of chicken. Derek rolls his eyes as he sits more comfortably on the couch.

‘’General Tso is literally one of the most popular Chinese dishes in the world. You just seem to follow the trend, that’s all,’’ he jokes as he eats a potsticker.

‘’And you, you’re still as boring as fuck eating rice.’’ He rolls his eyes. ‘’I mean; you can easily do rice at home. Why do you have to order it at a restaurant? It’s like those people who literally go to a restaurant, and order a salad. Like, what kind of restaurant food is that?! You’re going to pay for a stupid salad? Eat something you’re not going to eat at home!’’

‘’You can easily cook chicken at home,’’ Derek points out. Stiles shakes his head.

‘’General Tso is not as good if you do it at home when you can have a little Asian person doing it with a badass wok,’’

‘’Is it a little racist?’’ Derek asks, arching an eyebrow at him. Stiles huffs.

‘’I make fun of everybody. But in these days and age, everybody is offended by literally everything and anything,’’ he says, sighing dramatically. If a month ago someone would say that conversing with Stiles is going to be this fun, Derek would think that person was crazy. But today, no. Stiles is fun to talk to; he’s funny, witty, rude and unapologetic about it, and he talks openly about sex like he talks about the weather.

They talk like that back and forth long after they are done eating. Derek realizes how smart Stiles really is, and how it’s such a shame that he didn’t continue his education. He would have done great things, academically speaking, and it’s still not too late. Even though he’s dying to tell him as such, he refrains himself. Because it’s not his place. He doesn’t even have a place in Stiles’ life, other than in their beds. He doesn’t want to break the fragile bond he finally has with Stiles by overstepping his boundaries.

They end up binge watching season 3 of _The 100_ , late at night, on Derek’s password.

‘’I like Kane, now. He’s not a total dick like he’s used to be,’’ Stiles comments as he takes a handful of popcorn. Derek hums in agreement, entranced by the battle happening on the screen. ‘’I totally hate Pike. What a total douche. He deserved to die.’’ He says absently. ‘’I’ve never been a Clarke’s fan, even though her lady scenes are kinda hot.’’

‘’It sucks that Lexa died, though,’’ Derek says.

“Totally,’’ Stiles agrees. ‘’Just after making sweet love to Clarke. What a waste,’’ Stiles says. ‘’Bellamy better redeems himself, because right now, he’s on my dead list.’’

And the comments never stop, but somehow, Derek thinks it’s endearing. It also doesn’t bother him because Cora made him watch the entire series in almost one sitting, so he always knows what’s going to happen, but watching Stiles so immerse in a show, instead of thinking about reality for a little while, it’s all he’s asking for.

At the end of an episode, Derek hears soft snores coming from Stiles. He looks in his direction and sees him asleep in an awkward position on the couch. He gets him settled into a better position and place the throw blanket on him. He lingers there, inches away from Stiles’ face. His eyes are closed, his lips moving a little as he dreams and just because he wants to, Derek kisses him softly and quietly leaves the apartment.

Tonight was not about sex. They didn’t even initiate it, or even talked about it. And it was the best time he ever had with Stiles.

**-X-**

Stiles takes a deep breath. The sun hitting his skin makes him sweaty. Derek is tugging on his hand, making him walk further down the dusty pathway. He can hear faint music and the echo of laughter and children laughing.

‘’Wait, wait,’’ Stiles says, and he stops walking. Derek turns around and looks at him, always patient. ‘’Don’t forget what we said,’’ he reminds him with a firm, but trembling voice. He tries to look and to sound indifferent, but it comes as vulnerability and as goodbye. ‘’After this, you tell your family that we are breaking up. No more lies,’’ he says. He shallows and looks away. ‘’We part ways,’’

Derek nods solemnly, and suddenly, he reminds Stiles of the first time he saw him; the stoic deputy, almost breaking his arm when he tried to steal from him. The memory got him to smile.

‘’Why are you smiling?’’ Derek asks, with a small smile of his own.

‘’I never thought I would have had sex with one of my dad’s deputy, that’s all,’’ he shrugs, trying to hide his smile, but failing. The sun hit Derek’s eyes just right and it makes his eyes appear greener and for a moment, Stiles loses his breath.

‘’And I never thought I would have had sex with my boss’ kid,’’ Derek replies. ‘’We’re on the same boat,’’

At the end of the pathway, just 10 minutes from the Hales house, there’s the charity Talia Hale is hosting. As a prominent figure in the county district, she’s doing a funds raising for _Happy horse,_ which is an organization Talia and her husband funded ten years ago to help mistreated horses find new homes where they can be loved. Horses, Stiles had found out, are pretty important in this town. It’s almost like a symbol and because of it, everybody in town attend the charity and Stiles can even recognized familiar faces from Beacon Hills.

Derek sees Laura and her husband talking with Lydia and he can see, from afar, Cora and Isaac stealing cotton candy from each other’s mouth. Derek shudders, thinking they’re obviously still in their honey moon phase, even after a month of being married. There are a few stands for candies, and carnival games and the many people on the ranch impress Derek greatly. He knows how good his parents are at hosting and organizing big events, but they really step up their game, this time. Because it’s an event to raise awareness to help horses, they were the highlight of the day. He can see from afar his horse, Shadow, being gently pet by starry-eyed kids as his dad makes sure that the horses are calm, talking to kids and adults alike about the severity of mistreated horses and what we can do to save as many as possible. It was a great cause, and a cause that the Hales fight for years.

A stage was built to welcome local artists to perform. A lot of these artists are from the near by college or the coffee shops. They are quite talented, but they didn’t break into stardom. Derek knows his mom loves indie music and she loves the underground sounds they bring and she always says they are a jewel that was not yet discovered, and it was what make them so special.

With all the people, and his distractions to see what his family had made of the ranch for the day, he lost Stiles.

‘’Looking for someone?’’ Laura says behind him. ‘’Maybe a cute college boy, with moles and an unhealthy obsession with graphics tees and converse?’’

Derek shallows, and forces a smile. He hates to lie to his sister, or any member of his family, really. ‘’He’s a college student. What do you expect?’’

‘’You’re right. Too young to suits and ties.’’ She shrugs with a lopsided smirk. ‘’What’s on your smile?’’ she asks as she gently nudges his shoulder with hers. ‘’You look pensive. Or determined. Or both. I can’t never tell with your eyebrows. But you definitely look weird.’’

‘’What makes you think that?’’ Derek asks and Laura gives him her I’m-your-big-sister-therefore-I-know-everything-about-you look. He caves.

‘’I-I just… didn’t want to be there?’’ he tries, and even to his own ears, he knows it sounds like a lie. And it is a lie.

‘’Try again, liar,’’ she scoffs. ‘’You may not be a social butterfly, but you definitely always enjoy these fundraisers. So, as your big sister, I demand to know what’s up with you,’’ she orders, her green eyes now only slits.

‘’I…’’ he looks at her, at the same eyes as his, at the same nose and lips as his and he knows he can’t lie to her anymore. Even though it all started as a white lie, something harmless to get his family off of his back about his dating life, and helping his boss’ kid at the same time, turned out to be much bigger and worst of all, with _feelings_ involve. But as he looks at her, he deflates and try to look for an escape route. ‘’Okay, look. Something is happening, but I can’t tell you the whole truth,’’

‘’I’m your sister, you can tell me everything,’’ Laura says, frustrated and it’s like they are ten and eight again, arguing about silly things.

‘’And I’m a grown adult and I can’t tell you everything,’’ Derek retorts and he knows how sounds childish, but he can’t help it. At work, he can act all professional, but when it comes to his family, especially his sisters, his inner child can come to the surface and he forgets that he’s almost thirty. ‘’Let’s just say that I did something. For a friend,’’ he adds, thinking of the Sheriff. ‘’To help him out.’’

‘’Like what? Criminally?’’ Laura exclaims and a few suspicious heads turn in their directions. Derek shushes her, his eyes threated.

‘’No,’’ he says, indignantly. ‘ _’Anyways,_ I just had to lie for something,’’

‘’Is it about work?’’ she asks.

‘’Yes,’’ Derek says without missing a beat. It’s better she thinks it’s about work than him selling drugs. ‘’He asked me to… lie about something. But then it catapults into something bigger. And now I’m stuck with this lie, because everybody loves the lie I told, and if I tell the truth, I don’t want to hurt anybody.’’ Laura is oddly quiet, listening. Then she hums, nodding.

‘’Then don’t say anything.’’ At Derek’s confuse face, she continues. ‘’Sometimes it’s cool to lie. It’s better than hurting people you love,’’ she says, then adds. ‘’It’s like the fat friend,’’ Derek makes a face and Laura laughs, but continues. ‘’You’re not going to say to your fat friend that they’re fat. It’s going to hurt their feelings. It’s a little white lie,’’ she shrugs and winks at him.

From afar, Sebastian calls Laura’s name. She waves at him and kiss Derek on the cheek. ‘’Gotta go. But hey, don’t let it get to you. It’ll all work out in the end.’’

She squeezes his arm and go join her husband. He doesn’t know if the story of the fat friend is the same thing as orchestrating a fake boyfriend and having this man into their house, and let this man be loved by the people _you love_ and falling in love with them shortly after, then fake break up with them because that was the plan all along.

It’s all kinds of messed up, and he doesn’t know whose heart is going to break the most; his family’s or his.

**-X-**

Stiles makes his way to the stable, far away from the crowd and the crying babies, the crying and snotty children, the snobby teenagers and the stupid adults. He hates people, sometimes. In the dark space, he can see that only Fluffly was in the stables. The others horses are outside, being pet by stupid and snotty children.

He scoffs at the horse. ‘’See, you don’t just have a bad attitude with me. They don’t even want you near these people!’’ he says, as if the horse can understand him. He touches the railings and his arms tangle, unafraid of the beige and spotty horse. ‘’Isaac’s stupid for calling you a stupid name,’’ he says. ‘’Fluffy is a stupid name. He should have called you Trouble Maker or something,’’ The horse nods his head eagerly, like he understands. It makes Stiles laughs. He sobers up as he looks at the horse.

‘’I guess you’re a little bit like me, then. A little bit fucked up, a little strange to be with the others.

‘’You’re good with him,’’ a voice says behind him and Stiles startles so much he almost trips and he curses, no matter if the voice owner is his fake boyfriend’s mother.

‘’Jesus,’’ he says as he tries to get his heart under control. Talia chuckles lowly and smiles warmly.

‘’I’m sorry for startling you. I saw you entering the stables. I wanted to talk to you,’’

‘’About?’’ he asks, arching an eyebrow at her.

‘’This horse, as you know, is bad with people. But he listens to you,’’ Stiles scoffs.

‘’Yeah, he listens to me very well when I got stranded the first time I was out with him,’’

‘’It was your test. And you passed it. Now he respects you,’’ Stiles rolls his eyes.

‘’It’s just a horse. He doesn’t know shit.’’

‘’Horses are intelligent creatures, Stiles. They know feelings, and they know when people loves them, or don’t loves them. And they get attached to people. I can tell he’s attached to you,’’ she says. ‘’We rescued him when he was just a foal. We thought he was black at first with all the dirt on him. HE was severely dehydrated and couldn’t stand on his own. His former owner was a drunken guy with a junkyard and got this horse by playing poker.’’ She says and Stiles can see how much hatred she still had for the guy. ‘’Needless to say, this horse needed a new home. And because of this abuse, he was bad with people. Aggressive. He still is, but it’s not as severe. We prefer to get him away from crowds like today, though.’’

‘’What an asshole,’’ Stiles adds and Talia agrees. Stiles may be a lot of things; he was called a thief, a little bastard, a fraud, white trash and a slut in his less then glorious days in New York, but abusing an animal is not even human. It’s disgusting.

‘’I would like to offer you a job,’’ she says after a beat of silence. Stiles looks at her, wide-eyed, mouth open. ‘’I-uh… I’m still in college?’’ he says and winces, and it sounds even false to his own ears.

‘’I know. But during the summer! It beats to work at the coffeehouse,’’ she says kindly, but Stiles looks at her sharply, replying coldly: ‘’What’s wrong working at a coffeehouse?’’

‘’Nothing,’’ she calmly replies. ‘’But I will pay you twice as much and I’m sure a college student needs as much money in their pocket as possible.’’ She shrugs and she’s right. The offer looks good; more money, you work outside all day, but… no. He can’t. He’s not a student, and the plan is to fake break up with her son. After that, she will surely hate him, or despises him. A month ago, the thought of her, or the entire family hating him didn’t faze him. He was there to not have a criminal record and that was it. He was not here to make friends, or adopt a new family. And it’s what happened anyways, and now, he’s sick with the knowledge of not having Talia, or Laura or Cora, or Isaac in his life anymore.

Before he can refuse the offer, she says: ‘’At least, think about it, okay? I’m doing a new program to help children with anger issues.’’ She says and adds when Stiles looks at her like he wanted to say something else. ‘’Animals are therapeutic,’’

She squeezes his shoulder, and hugs him. He closes his eyes, enjoying the hug. It’s been years since he has been hugged by a mother and it feels good. Warm, it smells like lavender and it’s familiar. ‘’I have to go. Be a good host and all,’’ she winks, pats the horse’ neck a few times, and leaves.

He offers the horse a sad smile. ‘’Don’t look at me like that. I can’t take the job and you know it.’’ The horse neighs. ‘’I know. It kinda sucks we won’t be co-workers.’’

**-X-**

When Stiles joins Derek again, the older man is talking to Lydia near a candy stand. Stiles offers her a tight smile, and Lydia purses her lips, looking at him like he’s a big she’s desperately want to trample.

‘’You have a lovely dress, Lydia,’’ Stiles says, trying to be as genuine as possible. With Derek’s sisters, it’s just so easy to be charming, and to work the lies so effortlessly. They both want to see their brother happy and they welcome him with no reluctance. But with Lydia, it’s like she can read him like a book, like she knew what they were doing all along.

She wears a yellow sundress with huge sunglasses on top of her messy red locks twirl to make a high bun. Her green eyes look at him in disapproval. Stiles can see Derek subtly nudging her elbow and she responds with a ‘’Thanks. You don’t look so bad yourself,’’ in a clipped tone. She immediately ignores Stiles in order to wave at Cora and murmured something and was off to go see Cora and Isaac in the crowd.

‘’I’m sorry about that,’’ Derek says awkwardly. Stiles shrugs, not really caring. Lydia’s dislike toward him is not a surprise.

‘’Look, I need to talk to you,’’ Stiles says.

‘’Are you okay?’’ Derek asks, concerned as he really looks at Stiles and see his troubled expression.

‘’Yeah, I just-‘’ _no, I’m not okay. None of this is okay._ He sees Talia going on the stage they built for the occasion and he gulps as he sees her, sees her kinds eyes, and her smile, and how welcoming she was from the start, and how she offered him a job. A good, real job and guilt grips his heart. He distinctly hears her talking to the crowd as the music stops, and people stop doing what they were doing in order to listen to her. He still feels Derek looking at him, whispering to him what’s wrong, and Talia thanking people to be here and how important this event was for horses, but animals in general and they are _all good people,_ and he’s not.

Then, to his left, he sees a familiar face walking through the crowd.

‘’Scott,’’ Stiles suddenly says, but not loud enough to be heard as Talia talks, but Derek heard him. ‘’Scott is here,’’

Derek nods and looks calm, like he already knows. ‘’You should go talk to him,’’ he gently prompts. Stiles shakes his head, not knowing what to say, how to act.

‘’He misses you,’’

‘’And how to you know that?’’ Stiles retorts harshly. ‘’Did he tell you, like my dad tells you everything now like some kind of middle school BFFs?’’

‘’It’s just obvious,’’ Derek rolls his eyes, annoyed by Stiles’ antic to lash out everything he’s uncomfortable. ‘’Scott have been looking at you all day. There’s longing and regret in his eyes. He looks sad.’’

Stiles shakes his head and looks down, hitting the dusty ground with his foot. ‘’I was not a good person to him, Derek.’’

‘’Tell him that. Tell him you regret how things turned out,’’ Derek says, taking Stiles’ hand in his.

Talia’s speech ends and Stiles feels guilty that he hasn’t listened a word, too preoccupied by Scott, and by what ifs. He sees Scott talking and laughing with that pretty Asian from the wedding. Kira, Stiles had gathered and from what he heard from town, they are serious and _engaged._ It’s so weird to see all of these people moving forward with real jobs, and real places to live and weddings and marriages and he’s still stuck at the same place. But he guesses it’s his own fault.

He sees Scott kisses Kira as she’s swept away to be with Isaac and some people he doesn’t know. He follows where Scott goes; in a small clearing. It doesn’t surprise Stiles to see his childhood friend and now technically brother goes on his own for some alone time. Scott had always been kind of a loner.

With a beer in hand, Scott sits on the long grass, taking a big sip and looks at the sky. Stiles sees for the first time that he has a tattoo on his bicep. That fact surprised Stiles a little. He doesn’t know what to say, what to do, and weeping and apologizing is not his fort. So he sits next to Scott.

Scott looks sharply at the newcomer, mouth still full of beer, and eyes so large they don’t quite fit in his face.

‘’I-uh, I heard you’re in vet school,’’ Stiles says, unsure. ‘’That’s-uh, that’s really cool. You’ve always loved animals,’’ he adds awkwardly.

‘’Especially wolves,’’ Scott says after a moment, Stiles remembers that, quite vivdly, actually. Scott’s obsession with wolves as a kid was truly unheatly.

‘’Yeah, I remember that,’’ there’s a lull in the conversation, neither of them quite sure how to proceed from there, until Scott suddenly asks: ‘’Do you want a beer?’’ he gets up but stop Stiles from following him. ‘’No, stay here. I’ll be right back,’’

‘’Scott,’’ Stiles says, licking his lips nervously, looking up at him. ‘’I just want to say that…’’

‘’Don’t,’’ Scott gently says, but a smile, a soft, puppy-like smile graces his lips. ‘’I don’t care. I only care that you’re back,’’

When he leaves to bring back another beer, Stiles wonders if Scott’s ability to forgive and forget is a good thing or not. He always sees the good in people, Stiles doesn’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

They end up talking for hours, reconnecting. They don’t talk about the fallout, about how Stiles was obsessed to get high in high school and impress his new friends. They don’t talk about Stiles rejecting Scott’s friendship as they get older and his new friends were more important then his childhood friend. They don’t talk about Stiles fleeing for New York, don’t give a sigh of life, or how he had fraud his own father.

They just talk about vet school, Stiles’ shitty job at the coffeehouse where the only costumer at times is a homeless guy. They talk about Derek, and Kira and how quirky she is and if they meet, (not if, but when, Scott had told him), they would just hit it off. It feels great to have a friend again. They laugh like old pals, and they tell jokes, and even talks about sex like two friends would do. It feels normal, like they had never part.

Before they know it, hours had passed and they are still in the clearing. The blue sky is now dark, with stars.

He only sees Derek later that night, when he goes to Derek’s apartment, Scott had given him a ride and he still feels giddy, content like something had settled deep inside of him.

He was still high on happiness when he sleeps with Derek, forgotten, or ignoring the elephant in the room. As they lay tangled together in bed afterwards, Derek speaks first. ‘’You know, even when all of this ends, we don’t have to stop seeing each other,’’ he says as he absently plays with Stiles’ fingers. ‘’I enjoy spending time with you,’’

‘’You know that we can’t,’’ Stiles murmurs.

‘’You can’t, you mean,’’ Derek replies but it’s not harsh, just pure understanding.’’

‘’I want to, Derek,’’ Stiles retorts as he gets up, searching for his jeans on the floor. ‘’God I want to, Derek. You have no idea,’’

‘’Then, what’s the problem?’’ Derek asks. ‘’We have fun, don’t we? The sex is great, but I also like spending time with you. I thought we were at least friends. The fact that we end this… thing so people know we break up does not mean we need to be strangers to each other,’’

‘’It was a lie all along, Derek,’’ Stiles retorts.

‘’I know, but don’t lie to yourself and say it doesn’t matter, Stiles. Don’t say I don’t matter to you.’’

‘’Derek!’’ Stiles says, frustrated as he turns to look at him, eyes blazing and wet. ‘’I just _can’t!_ I can’t, okay? Because if I don’t leave now, I know I will never be able to walk away,’’

‘’What’s wrong with that?’’

‘’Because I know what I feel for you is more than friendship. That I want you, Derek, but I can’t have you.’’

‘’Why can’t you have me?’’ Derek asks, and Stiles can hear hope in his voice. He gets up of bed and he’s fully naked, Stiles looks at him, because he knows it’s probably the last thing he can look at him like that.

‘’Because I have nothing to offer you. Did you know that your mom offered me a job today?’’ he says, voice shaking. ‘’I don’t know if it’s out of pity, but yeah. I’m a high school drop out, Derek. With no future. I don’t know where I’m going to be tomorrow, I used to do hard drugs, and sleep with people to get a place to crash. I stole from people, from my dad.’’ A single tear slide down his cheek and he urgently wipes it.

‘’I don’t care. I don’t care about all of it,’’ Derek says, cupping Stiles’ face to urge him to look at him.

‘’But you should! You should care about it. I end up falling for you, but I shouldn’t. I don’t belong in your life and I’m screwed up and you only want to stay friends and I get it, but if I stay, I’d only end up hurting myself and I-‘’

Derek kisses him, silencing him. Stiles kisses him back, already breathless. His cheeks are still wet, but Derek doesn’t seem to care as he cups his cheeks, deepening the kiss. When Derek steps back, his lips just inches away from Stiles, he speaks.

‘’I never wanted to be just friends with you, Stiles.’’ He says. ‘’You’re a pain in the ass, and I disliked you at first. But you- you crawled into my skin and you made me feel alive again. You’re brutally honest, and sometimes mean, but you’re _you_ and you don’t take bullshit from anyone and I admire you for it. And I just want to say that your dad had the best idea ever, because it brought me to you.’’ He says as he kisses Stiles once again. ‘’You need to stop beating yourself up and just be happy.’’

‘’You want me?’’ Stiles asks, uncertain.

‘’I want you,’’ Derek replies with a soft smile. And for them, _I want you_ is synonymous with _I love you_ , and Stiles will gladly take it.

They end up watching _The 100_ until the wee hours of the morning, sharing a blanket and eating junk food.

‘’So,’’ Stiles says. ‘’I talked to Scott,’’

‘’I know,’’ Derek says. ‘’How’d it go ?’’

‘’Good. I think’’ he shrugs and leans over to take the bowl full of popcorn from the table. ‘’Scott is easy to forgive and forget and some day, it would be his demise. I don’t really deserve it, but I’m relief that he has an open-mind.’’

‘’Hey,’’ Derek nudges his shoulder gently. ‘’You take a step forward. That’s good! Scott was never mad at you.’’ Kurt gives him an exasperate really look, and Derek chuckles. ‘’But if you want to be in his good grace again, buy something cool for his fiancée. Kira is really into martial arts.’’

**-X-**

The next few weeks, they were peaceful, exhilarating, amazing. Derek had never met someone like Stiles; unapologetic, snarky, blunt, but unbelievably smart, cunning and interesting. With him by his side, his days are full of light, of happiness and this time, Derek was sure it was going to be it, and they don’t have to keep lying to his family anymore, because what they have now is real. They are building something for real, this time. It can just go right, but like always, something, or someone fucks it up for him.

Derek can still remember Lydia, her red hair pulls into a messy bun, a few stray hair falling into her judgmental green eyes. He can remember the anger in her eyes, her silently judging him, her red lips pursed and her ‘’I told you so’’, in a slightly annoyed, but resigned voice.

But he refuses to believe it. He needs proof. He needs to make sure.

He knocks lightly on Stiles’ door, sighing deeply. When Stiles opens the door, he beams at Derek and the older man forces a smile, seeing him making his heart ache.

‘’Hey, you,’’ Stiles greets as he kisses him.  ‘’Where were you all day?” Stiles asks as he invites Derek in his apartment. ‘’I thought we were going to hang out all day. You didn’t pick up your phone when I was trying to call you.’’ He says as he disappears in the kitchen. ‘’I’m not fucking needy or anything, but a little heads up would have been nice,’’

‘’I was at parents’.’’ Derek says quietly as he stands alone in the living room. His limbs feel heavy with dread. ‘’I forgot to call you,’’

‘’S’okay,’’ Stiles says as he emerges from the kitchen with two glasses of water. ‘’I thought we could do something tonight. Go to the movies, or something.’’

‘’I-yeah,’’ Derek says and Stiles frowns at him, noticing his distant behavior and his guarded eyes.

‘’Are you okay?’’

‘’We need to talk,’’ Stiles frowns even more at that and sits heavily on the couch. He forces a smile.

‘’Is it like ‘’We need to talk’’ when you want to break up with me, or is it like ‘’We need to talk’’ I hate your cooking but never had the heart to tell you?’’ Derek sits next to him, studying Stiles’ features, memorizing everything about him. His moles, his honey colored eyes, his pale skin, his lips stretch too thin when he smiles, his messy hair… and realizes that if it’s true, and if what they have is now ruined, Derek just knows he couldn’t risk the chance to fall in love again.

Not after Jennifer and Stiles. It’s just too much.

‘’I need you to be honest with me.’’ Derek begins. ‘’Can you do that?’’

‘’What? Of course, Derek. But, I don’t understand. What’s going on? Why do you look like someone just killed your puppy?’’ Stiles asks, trying to lighten up the mood, but to no avail.

‘’Did you go into my mom’s bedroom?’’

From all the things to say, Stiles sure didn’t expect _that._ He looks at Derek, confused, not knowing what to do, or what to say.

‘’I- what?’’ he asks.

‘’Just answer the question, Stiles,’’ Derek seems tired, resign.

‘’Derek, tell me what’s going on,’’ Stiles demands. ‘’I don’t understand and this isn’t funny,’’

Derek sighs. ‘’My mom’s diamond necklace that my dad gave her for her wedding day, it’s gone. Someone stole it,’’

A few seconds pass without neither of them talk, until what Derek said sink in. Stiles blinks several times, his nervous mechanism when he’s uncomfortable with something, and looks at Derek with the most heartbreaking gaze Derek had ever seen.

‘’You think I stole it,’’ Stiles says more like a statement than a question.

‘’I don’t think anything, Stiles,’’ Derek shakes his head, but he simply looks resign.

‘’But you still came into my home, demanding who I fucking was, or where I’ve been up to like I’m in some kind of interrogation room!’’ He stands up and crosses his arms in a protective gesture.

‘’Stiles-‘’

‘’But you still doubt me,’’ Stiles says, interrupting what Derek was going to say. ‘’After everything, you still doubt me. You don’t fully trust me,’’

Derek makes a frustrated noise and gets up. ‘’I didn’t accuse you of anything,’’ Derek says, harshly.

‘’Not yet,’’ Stiles scoffs.

‘’Look- Theo saw you leaving my mom’s bedroom at Cora’s wedding and I-‘’

Stiles frowns at that. ‘’Your cousin’s boyfriend? You believe him, but-‘’

‘’I don’t know, I don’t know, Stiles!’’ Derek yells, interrupting Stiles’ rant. He deflates, as he saw Stiles’ broken expression. ‘’Lydia-‘’ he begins in a calmer tone. It’s all going wrong. They weren’t suppose to fight. They weren’t suppose to argue, he wasn’t suppose to make Stiles angry, and sad.

Stiles scoffs at that. ‘’Yeah, of course, Lydia. She hates my guts, but of course, you’re going to be on her side.’’ He hisses in Derek’s face. One single tear trails down his cheek and he hastily wipe it away and in that moment, he knew he made a mistake. He knew he shouldn’t have doubted him for one second and he knew he just ruined what could have been his bright future. ‘’I was a thief. A no good runaway. I get that,’’ he laughs humorlessly. ‘’But I thought, after all this time, you saw the good in me. I guess not’’

He steps back, his lips trembling as he looks anyways, but at Derek. The older man tries to come closer, tries to hug him, tries to apologizes, but Stiles refuses.

‘’Get out,’’ he says in a broken voice. Derek knows he can’t get his words back, that he can’t stay here and hope for the best, so he silently leaves as he watches Stiles going into his bedroom and closing his bedroom door hard.

**-X-**

 

 

 

Noah Stilinski lets out a sigh when he sees his son in his office, sitting on an uncomfortable chair, glaring daggers at him. He rubs a hand on his head, looking tired. As he enters the room, he closes the door so his deputies don’t overhear. He leans against his desk, looking at Stiles mournfully.

‘’What happened, son?’’ Stiles looks straight ahead, to an old and dusty photography of himself as a toddler proudly displayed on the desk. No one would have thought that the once bright-eyed, smiling toddler would become so jaded with life.

Stiles shrugs nonchalantly, uncaring.

‘’Scarlett Baker said you stole from her. And Parrish found you on the sidewalk, drunk and almost unconscious.’’

Stiles doesn’t say anything, his lips close tight, his ring lip digging painfully in his flesh. The sheriff, tired of the silent treatment, sits next to Stiles, and leans in his personal space.

‘’What’s going on with you? I thought you were done with all of this. I thought you were finally on the right track. You were doing so good,’’ he says. ‘’What went wrong?’’

Stiles scoffs at that. ‘’What went wrong?’’ he says in a disbelief voice. ‘’Don’t pretend you know me anymore.’’

Noah sighs and shakes his head in irritation. ‘’I want to, son. I want to get to know you again, but every time I try, you push me away!’’ Stiles looks away, glaring at the floor, but Noah is not having it anymore. He takes Stiles’ chin firmly in his hand and makes him look at him. When he notices the tightness in Stiles’ jaw and the wetness in his eyes, his eyes softens and he releases his hold. ‘’Whatever’s going on lately, Derek is involved, isn’t he?’’

‘’Of course you know about it,’’ Stiles scoffs, rolling his eyes. ‘’You two are best friends and you tell each other stories while braiding your hair, right?’’ Noah smiles at that, Stiles’ sarcasm was always something he found entertaining, and fascinating.

‘’It’s just obvious. Derek isn’t himself the past couple of days either, so…’’ he shrugs lightly.

‘’It doesn’t matter,’’ Stiles murmurs. ‘’He and I- I mean, it’s over. No big deal,’’ he shrugs and smiles half-heartedly. The smile doesn’t reach his eyes.

‘’But you wanted to be a big deal,’’ Noah says more like a statement than a question.

‘’I mean, yeah,’’ Stiles says, shallowing hard. ‘’But I guess it didn’t work out,’’ he spits the words and his eyes hardens. ‘’And no, I don’t want to talk about it,’’

Noah nods in agreement, then looks at him with a severe look. ‘’I’m sorry about your relationship, son, but it’s no excuse to break the law.’’ His grey eyes look tired, sad. ‘’You know what we talked about…’’

‘’I know, dad,’’ Stiles says, frustrated. ‘’ You can’t bend the law for me anymore, I get it. Guess now I can’t go to another wedding for a second chance, now, can I.’’ he says, trying to smile and lighten the mood. His father chuckles amd squeezes his son’s neck in affection. ‘’

‘’I’ll tell you what,’’ he suddenly says. ‘’Ms. Baker is a kind woman, if you go and apologizes and maybe buy a few cookies from her bakeries, I’m sure you’ll be forgiven.’’ Stiles nods in acceptance; it’s better than a criminal records and goes to stand up, but Noah’s voice stops him. ‘’And come at the house for a family dinner.’’ At Stiles’ unsure reaction, Noah continues. ‘’Scott can’t wait for you to meet his fiancée and Melissa will be overjoyed to see you again,’’

For the first time in the last few days, Noah sees some light in Stiles’ eyes and his lips stretch in a wide smile and for the first time, Noah really knows how much happiness Derek brought into his son’s life. And now, it’s gone.

**-X-**

It’s quite on the other side of the phone when Derek put it to his ear. He’s laying on his couch, staring at the ceiling blankly. It’s been like that for the past few days. Going to work, come home, and think things through. He was so angry at Stiles, and disappointed, and he believed Lydia before he can have believed Stiles. How fucked up is that?

He knows that’s Laura on the line and he waits for her to start talking. She’s not her bubbly self today and he knows why she’s calling, why she’s unusually quiet.

‘’Hey, baby brother,’’ she finally says. Her sweet voice makes shallowing hard for Derek.

‘’Hey,’’ he replies softly.

‘’I heard through the grape vines that you hit a little bump with your boyfriend.’’ She hesitantly says.

‘’Worse than a little bump, Laura,’’ he says, laughing humorlessly. ‘’It’s over between us,’’ and that part is harder to say, harder to believe.

He hears his sister sighs on the other side of the line. ‘’Do you want to talk about it? What happened?’’ She’s always been nosy; she also wanted to know what happened when he told her it was over with Jennifer, but she always respects his wish not to talk about things if he doesn’t want to.

‘’It’s my fault, Laura. He did nothing wrong. He didn’t,’’ he repeats, defeated. ‘’He was perfect,’’ he absently says, like he had forgotten he talks to someone else. ‘’He did nothing wrong and I- I let my insecurities win. I didn’t trust him enough,’’

‘’Why?’’ Laura asks a moment later. ‘’He seemed like a good boy, Derek.’’ There was no judgment in her tone, just her trying to understand.

‘’Laura, you just- you don’t understand,’’ he says in a small voice.

‘’I’m trying to understand, Derek,’’ Laura says and her voice is firmer. ‘’But you don’t give me a chance!’’

Derek ruffles his hair in frustration. ‘’I lied to you,’’

Before Laura can say anything else, he tells her about how Stiles came into town after running away, how he was a thief and did other stupid shit, how he arrested him and how, in order to keep him in line, the sheriff thought it would be good for Stiles, and at the same time help Derek finding a date to get his family off of his back.

‘’Well, you’re a dick,’’ Laura says firmly.

‘’I know, alright? I’m sorry I lied to the whole family and I’m sorry it was a charade, I just-‘’

‘’Not that,’’ Laura interrupts. ‘’You’re a dick because of what you did to Stiles,’’ she clarifies.

‘’Do you think I don’t know that? I feel awful and because of me, I destroyed what would have been the most amazing thing in my life.’’

There is a pause when Derek can distinctly hear his sister exhales.  ‘’I’m sorry this happened to you Derek,’’ Laura finally says.

‘’You’re the big sister,’’ Derek says with a faint chuckle. ‘’Tell me what to do?’’

‘’Derek…’’ Laura begins. ‘’I can’t tell you what to do. You need to figure it out on your own.’’

‘’I hurt him,’’ Derek confesses.

‘’I know,’’ Laura soothes him over the phone. ‘’But Derek… Stiles is not Jennifer. You need to let your guards down, otherwise, you’re never going to be able to trust anyone.’’

‘’I suck at love,’’ he groans, closing his eyes tightly. When he opens them again, there are white spots in his vision but this temporary blindness makes him feel good.

‘’You can’t punish yourself for one bad relationship. And Stiles is cute, and adorable, and charming-‘’

‘’I knew you had a crush on him,’’ Derek teases her gently.

‘’How could I not?’’ Laura retorts, not denying it. ‘’This boy is the cutest boy I have ever seen. Even if he stole from old people. He’s still cute.’’

‘’Does that bother you, though? That he used to be a thief?’’ He’s curious. He may not be a thief anymore, but he let him sleep under the same roof as his whole family when he was still, technically, a criminal.

He feels Laura shrugs. ‘’We always elect thieves for the presidency every four years, Der.’’ She giggles. ‘’I’m sure Stiles is harmless.’’ When they were quiet again, Laura continues. ‘’Just go talk to him. You deserve to be happy, and he deserves it too,’’

Derek nods, even though Laura can’t say it. ‘’You’re right. You’re always right,’’ he scoffs.

‘’Of course I’m always right. I’m the big sister, after all,’’ she says. She never was humble to begin with.

After a few more minutes of talking, Derek hung up the phone and tired of looking at the same spot on the ceiling, decides to go to his kitchen. He can hear the rain hitting his windows, but he pays him no mind. He loves the rain; it relaxes him and distracts him from everything else.

He opens his fridge when he realizes how hungry he actually is. As he looks inside, ready to take the leftover chicken, salad and vegetables to make a chicken salad, something caught his eye. It’s Pillsbury cookie dough, the mix in the cylindrical package.

He takes it his hand and smiles softly. He subconsciously always buys that stuff when he knows Stiles is coming at his place. Now, though, when he’s doing groceries, he always buys it because he never knows when Stiles is going to visit. He doesn’t understand how people can love eating raw cookie dough and never will.

Against his better judgment, he tore the package and takes a small bite of the dough as he watches the rain hitting his kitchen window. The taste is mostly sweet, with the chunk of the chocolate chips. He shrugs and takes another bite; it’s not half bad, he realizes with a hint of bitterness and sadness.

His chicken all but forgotten.

**-X-**

Melissa makes her famous tamales for dinner and Stiles finally feels like he’s home. He hasn’t been to this house for years and now that he’s here, he can faintly smell the rich wooden floor and his dad’s detergent. Every home has a certain smell, something warm and wonderful that makes you miss it once you’re gone. The last time he really saw Melissa smiling, or really talk to her and have a genuine conversation with her, was when he and Scott were still young, in middle school, and inseparable. By the time she was dating his father, he was always angry, high and be stupid to really care about anyone but himself.

But now she’s head, as beautiful as ever, and Stiles is immensely grateful that she was here for his dad when he was not.

Dinner is easy enough, with simple conversations. He gave Kira kickboxing gloves as an early wedding gift when Scott told him she wanted to learn the sport. Kira is easy going, friendly, even though she’s a little shy and has a strange fascination with gore movies. Something he and Kira can bond over and after dinner, they sit in the living room, talking about the latest horror movie they had seen. He even plays Halo with Scott and it reminds him of the glory days.

Once the couple left, Melissa was taking a shower, Stiles go upstairs to his old bedroom. He thought that his bedroom was going to convert into a guest room with the bare walls and new sheets, or an office so his dad would have a place to put all of the files he already brings home.

But instead, his bedroom is just as he remembers. The posters of bands he doesn’t even like anymore hang on the walls, his black and blue sheets are the same, his old books are on the same bookshelf and his computer is at the same place as it used to be. His closet is still full of his old clothes he didn’t bring to New York and even an old jacket lay on the back of his desk chair. It’s like teenage Stiles is still living here, everything untouched.

‘’I couldn’t get rid of anything,’’ Noah says behind him. ‘I was hoping you’d come back, one day,’’

Stiles turns around to face his father. ‘’How can you be okay with me?’’ Stiles asks, voice trembling. ‘’After what I’ve done to you?’’ Noah steps inside the bedroom and looks at his young son with tenderness and love; a look Stiles hasn’t seen in a long time. There’s no sadness or disappointment anymore.

‘’You’re my son. No matter what, you’re still family,’’

Stiles shakes his head. He can feel the tears coming. ‘’How can you still love me?’’ he wonders brokenly in a murmur. All these years, he was so lost and what he needed the most was to come home to realise what he truly misses.

‘’Oh, Stiles,’’ Noah says as he hugs Stiles tightly. ‘’I never stopped loving you,’’

‘’I’m sorry,’’ Stiles says, his voice muffles in his father’s shoulder. ‘’I’m so sorry,’’

‘’It’s okay,’’ the sheriff says as he rocks his son back and forth, ‘’You’re back home, now.’’

**-X-**

A week later, Stiles’ work place is graced by the presence of Lydia Martin. Since his reunion with his dad, he’s better, but not completely. He still doesn’t sleep well; his dreams and his thoughts haunted by Derek’s figure, by his doubts and his thrust issues about him. It hurt deeply and no matter what, he still can’t forget and forgive.

But Lydia Martin is here at the coffeehouse, looking as regal as ever in her red poncho to match her red locks and her jimmy choo boots; she reminds Stiles of the red riding hood.

Stiles in putting new muffins in the display as she walks in. Luckily, or unfortunately, no one was here, not even Homeless Ed.

‘’Lydia,’’ Stiles greets with a force smile. She returns the smile, but hers is more genuine, her eyes soften.

‘’That your working place, uh?’’ she asks, tracing the counter with her thin fingers.

‘’Well… I’m behind a counter, with an apron. I’d say yes, it’s my working place,’’ he says sarcastically. ‘’Want something to drink?’’ he asks, because she may not love him, but it’s still the polite thing to say.

‘’A coffee. Black.’’ She says without missing a beat. Stiles nods and turns his back to make the beverage.

‘’Of course it’s black; like your soul,’’ he murmurs to himself.

‘’Thank you,’’ Lydia says as Stiles hands her her coffee. She stays there, evaluating him as she drinks from her coffee. She hums. ‘’This coffee is quite good. I should come here more often,’’ Stiles rolls his eyes.

‘’This place is a shithole. I’m sure you have better in San Fran.’’ He retorts, but Lydia only raise a brow in amusement. ‘’Cut the crap, Lydia. You didn’t come on this side of town for the coffee.’’

‘’Be careful, Stiles. You don’t want your boss hear you speak to a customer like this,’’

‘’My boss is never here, or if he is, he’s in the back sleeping.’’

‘’I want to talk to you; take a break,’’ she orders as she flips her hair over her shoulder and go sit to a table. Stiles grumbles to himself and makes a face behind her back, but still follows her.

‘’It’s about Derek,’’ she says.

‘’No shit,’’ he rolls his eyes. ‘’Considering the fact that the only thing we have in common is Derek. I really can’t think of anything else that would lead you to go talk to me,’’

‘’Stop it with the sarcasm,’’ she snaps. ‘’Look,’’ she says and sighs. ‘’I was wrong,’’ Stiles knows it was hard for her to say it by refusing to look in his eyes.

‘’You putting your nose where it doesn’t belong cost me my relationship,’’ he hisses.

‘’I’m aware of that,’’ she snaps, frowning at him. ‘’But I was the only one who knew about this whole masquerade to begin with. I knew you, Stiles. I knew what you did from the get go.’’ She says as she stares at Stiles coldly, before her green eyes soften. ‘’I just wanted to protect Derek.’’ She reveals. ‘’When Talia’s jewelleries went missing, I automatically thought it was you. When Theo told us he saw you going inside Talia’s bedroom, I didn’t think. I just acted and told Derek.’’

‘’Derek still could have believed me,’’

‘’Yes,’’ Lydia concedes. ‘’but I put doubts in his mind.’’ She looks out the window, deep in thought. ‘’I know you’re hurt. And you have every right to be.’’ She says gently. ‘’Since Jennifer-‘’ she coughs. ‘’Well, it’s harder for Derek to trust people. I’m not making excuses for him. I’m simply telling you where he’s coming from.’’

There’s a tense silence, until Stiles breaks it. ‘’Thanks. For trying to makes things right,’’ he finally says.

‘’I’m sorry I jumped to conclusion.’’ Lydia apologizes as she stands. ‘’Excellent coffee,’’ she says again as she throws the empty cup in the trash. ‘’Listen, Stiles,’’ Lydia says as Stiles accompanied her to the door. ‘’I really hope it really works out with Derek,’’

‘’Why?’’ he asks, genuinely curious because he knows how much she dislikes him.

‘’You’re good for him. And he’s good for you,’’ she confesses with a small, shy smile. ‘’you know; we can actually become great friends.’’

‘’Oh?’’ Stiles asks, arching an eyebrow.

‘’Yeah,’’ she shrugs. ‘’We’re both strong-headed self-made people. When we don’t like someone or something, we tell it as it is.’’ She winks at him and leaves the shop, leaving Stiles alone with his thoughts.

**-X-**

Stiles is the last person Derek expected to see when he opened his door on a Friday night. A timid smile grace his lips, his uncertainty clears in his clear brown eyes.

‘’Hi,’’ he simply says.

‘’Hey,’’ Derek manages to say, just standing there. He hasn’t seen, nor talked to Stiles for over two weeks, now. He couldn’t face him, and he convinced himself to wait was the best idea. But now, he’s standing there, fidgeting.

‘’Can I come in or are you going to let me freeze my ass off?’’ Stiles says sarcastically, with a dismissive shrug, but Derek can see a tiny smile tugging at his lips. Derek lets him in, heart pounding. Before he can say anything, Stiles beats him to it. ‘’Can we watch _The 100_?’’ he asks, cracking his knuckles as a nervous habit. Derek frowns at him, because, what the hell? But it’s Stiles, and oddly enough, what he just said is not surprising.

‘’Uh, sure,’’ Derek says, nodding slowly. ‘’Uh, do you want something to drink, or…?’’

‘’Coffee’s fine,’’ he says as he sits on the couch, like nothing had ever happened between them. Derek nods again, and disappear in the kitchen as he listens to the intro of the tv show. When he walks into the living room, Stiles is fully entranced in the show, biting his nails in concentration and lazily sipping the hot beverage. And Derek, well, he spends most of his time watching Stiles’ profile than watching what Clarke is doing on screen. 

They watch The 100 for three hours straight.

‘’I get it, you know,’’ Stiles suddenly says when the credits were showing. ‘’When they were living in space, they had no choice but to kill to stay alive.’’

‘’Even if it means killing your own husband? Your own children, or friends?’’

‘’They were trying to survive,’’ he says. ‘’I’m not saying it’s right, but what I mean is that when they came down on Earth, Kane knew his wrongdoings and wanted to make it right. He regretted it.’’

‘’Even if it means he’s going to live the rest of his life knowing what he did?’’

‘’Nobody is perfect,’’ Stiles says. ‘’And neither of us are perfect,’’

‘’What are you getting at?’’ Derek murmurs, shallowing hard. Stiles makes a frustrated sound.

‘’I mean that you didn’t believe me, and that fucking hurt,’’ Stiles admits. ‘’So, you’re a fucking douchebag,’’

‘’I’m sorr-‘’

‘’I’m not done!’’ Stiles interrupts. When he looks at Derek, all anger leaves his body. ‘’But you have reasons not to trust me,’’

‘’It doesn’t excuse-‘’

‘’But it does, actually.’’ Stiles says with a sad smile. ‘’I know that I did in the past, and I know it’s going to impact on my future. I can’t- I can’t hold it against you, when I understand, Derek,’’

‘’I’m still sorry,’’ Derek says after a moment.

‘’I know,’’ Stiles slides closer to Derek and takes his hand in his and smiles hopefully at him. ‘’Say, next time, we have to trust each other,’’

‘’Next time?’’ Derek asks.

‘’Yeah,’’ Stiles nods and bites his lip. ‘’There’s no way I’m letting you go,’’

Derek doesn’t wait anything as he crashes his mouth to Stiles’. Stiles lets out a happy sound and deepen the kiss. When Derek was going to put his hands beneath Stiles’ t-shirt, he separates from Stiles, breathless.

‘’Wait, wait,’’

‘’What for?’’ Stiles asks absently as he lightly bites Derek’s neck.

‘’I just want to tell you something,’’ Derek says, chuckling at Stiles’ insistence to keep going.

‘’What?’’ Stiles asks, annoyed.

‘’Today Laura called me,’’

‘’Yeah, and? As much as I love her, talking about your sister is a major turn off,’’

‘’She said that my cousin Malia went to see my mom and told her that she had found her jewelleries in her boyfriend’s stuff. She dumped Theo’s ass,’’ he says and adds ‘’I think she actually broke his wrist,’’

‘’That fucking douchebag’’ Stiles explains, frowning. ‘’Well,’’ he says as he resumes kissing Derek’s throat. ‘’Malia may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but she’s quite badass.’’

‘’Also,’’ Derek retorts. ‘’Talking about my cousin right now is a major turn off,’’

‘’You started it,’’ Stiles shrugs innocently. ‘’Now, would you show me how much you missed me?’’

Laughter echo in Derek’s apartment as Derek’s playfully tickles Stiles, leading him in the bedroom.

-X-

**Six months later**

Derek wakes up as someone gets up. Sun rays filtered through the curtains and he groans.

‘’Come back,’’ he mumbles, patting the empty space next to him. He feels the bed dips and hears a chuckle. ‘’I have to go to work,’’ Stiles murmurs. ‘’But go back to sleep, it’s your day off,’’

‘’I wanna go, too,’’

Stiles shakes his head. ‘’Use this wonderful day off to clean our apartment, will ya?’’ he says with a cheeky smile as he leaves the bedroom.

‘’No way I clean alone,’’ Derek complains and with a last effort, he leaves the warm comfort of his bed and get dressed. It was not a first occurrence for Derek to come with Stiles when he has days off and Stiles happens to work. It gives him the chance to see the family more often. With two hot coffees to go, they leave for the ranch.

**-X-**

Derek is leaning against the railing of the house as he listens his mom humming a tune inside.

‘’Your boy works well with the new kid,’’ Laura says as he joins her brother on her porch. He watches Stiles talking to the new kid, Liam, who laughs openly about something Stiles just said. It was a long journey for Liam to be happy again. Shortly after Stiles and Derek made up and a long talk about his future, Stiles finally accepted Talia’s offer to work at the ranch. The new program Talia implanted about difficult children spending their time with horses was quite popular. Liam is one of the first clients. At firsts, there was a lot of ‘ _’Fuck yous’’_ , but Talia knew putting Stiles in charge of this program was a good thing. He doesn’t take shit from anybody, and soon after that, Liam became to control his anger issues.

‘’Stiles understands what Liam is going through more than anyone,’’ Derek says as he watches Stiles sits on his horse. He smiles warmly as he remembers him renaming his horse.

_‘’Fluffy got to go,’’ he concludes._

_‘’There’s nothing wrong with his name,’’ Isaac says, annoyed._

_‘’Everything is wrong with his name! And it’s my horse now, so you can kiss my ass.’’ Stiles retorts. ‘’Dots. He’s going to be called Dots,’’ he concludes triumphantly._

_‘’And that’s not worse?’’ Isaac scoffs. ‘’Derek, say something!’’_

_‘’I’m not getting in the middle of it,,’ Derek says._

_‘’Just look at him, Isaac,’’ Stiles says. ‘’He has dots all over his body, just like me! See?’’ he says as he points to his moles on his face. ‘’It’s even worse naked,’’ he goes to lift his shirt and unbuckles his belt, but Isaac stops him._

_‘’I’d rather not see it,’’_

_‘’Point is, Mole is a kinda gross name. So, Dots it is!’’_

_‘’Fine,’’ Isaac rolls his eyes._

‘’He’s everything I need,’’ Derek says to Laura, watching Stiles rides his horse until the sun is high and mighty in the clear blue sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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